Konoha's midnight flash
by Jacobus Negromante
Summary: Naruto is taken at the age of five to be raised in isolation. Everyone is told of the secrets of his heritage and Naruto grows up learning all of his parent's tecniques to kill a certain man...Super Naruto
1. Plan B

Naruto is removed from Konoha at the age of five and is raised in isolation with his parents' techniques and money until he is ready to be a ninja. Then… a bunch of bad ass stuff happens! Super powered Naruto. Pairing undecided. NO YAOI!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything that has to do with it! Kishimoto does, okay! SO FUCK OFF!

Chapter 1: Plan B

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Konohagakure no Sato  
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It's a cold, rainy night in Konohagakure. The streets are riddled with puddles of dirty water, houses are being bombarded by heavy rain drops, and not one living creature can be seen in the open, all of them opting to hide in their own form of shelter. Except for one unfortunate soul, that is. Sitting in an alleyway near the slums of Konoha is a small boy, shivering in the cold and crying so heavily that you can see the tears even through the fat rain drops that keep falling down on his face. The boy's name is Uzumaki Naruto, and it's his fifth birthday today.

He had been sitting there all day, hiding and praying that nobody would try to kill him this year. It had happened six times last year on his birthday. That's not to say that people don't try to kill him on any other day, his birthday is just the worst. Naruto has no idea why everybody hates him so much. He has no idea why the orphanage caretakers throw him out on the streets and then beat him senseless when he returns. He has no idea why shop owners refuse to sell him anything, or even throw him out of their stores; literally. He has no idea why random people he's never met before will try to kill him even as he walks down the street, in broad daylight. He has no idea why when a drunken fool stabs him with a broken bottle, the wound will heal in a matter of seconds. He has no idea that he holds within him the strongest demon that ever lived. Fortunately, he's going to find out soon. Of course, that's going to come at a price. His prayers will not be answered…

"Hey, he's over here!" were the words that sent Naruto into a panic. His head shot up, and there at the end of the alley he sees a particularly ugly old woman with only one hand. But in that hand was a kunai knife. Suddenly she was joined by a whole horde of angry townsfolk, all of them wanting to bring home a piece of Naruto to feed to their dogs. Naruto was afraid; he didn't know what to do. Surely these people were going to kill him, but what could he do about it? There was nowhere to run; he was surrounded on three sides by walls.

"Just leave me alone! I never did anything to you!" Naruto decided that screaming at them was the best course of action.

"Don't lie, you filthy demon! You killed my daughter!" Retorted a random member of the child murdering squad.

"You killed my brother!"

"And my aunt!"

"You killed my wife you god damn demon!" Everyone in the crowed seemed to have lost a loved one to him, but Naruto couldn't remember killing anyone. It didn't make sense.

"And you took my hand!" Screamed the old lady as she charged at Naruto faster then he would have thought an old woman to be capable. She was on him in a flash, and she smashed him in the head with the blunt end of the kunai four or five times, and Naruto was seriously starting to black out after that. But she stopped, and she raised her knife up and screamed "THIS IS FOR KONOHA!" and brought down her weapon, unable to resist dealing the final blow any longer…

Naruto saw a flash and heard the sound of… birds? Yes, it sounded like the chirping of a thousand birds. He opened his eyes, having closed them in anticipation of the pain, and saw a man standing in front of him. The man was wearing a navy blue ninja suit, and had a bolt of lightning in the palm of his hand, which was shoved through his assailant's mouth, coming out the other end and spewing bits of her brains everywhere.

"I'm sick and tired of hearing all you mother fuckers telling my sensei's son that he's a demon! JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!" He ripped his arm out of the old hag's head and turned around to see that Naruto had passed out. He went to go pick him up as the crowed turned to run away. They tried, anyway…

Waiting for them at the end of the alleyway was their precious Hokage, dressed in his serene white robes and pissed off beyond all comprehension. He did a few hand seals, put his fingers to his lips, and took a great big breath…

"**Katon: Karyu Endan**!" Sarutobi Hiruzen breathed out a massive flame dragon that burned all life within that alleyway to a smoldering crisp. He stopped exhaling just as Kakashi landed next to him, holding Naruto.

"This has to stop Hokage-sama. This is the third time this week that somebody tried to kill Naruto, and it's only Tuesday!" Said Kakashi as a screaming, burning man came running out of the flames yelling "help me, help me!"

"I know Kakashi, I know." Replied the old man, as he threw a kunai into the burning man's head without even looking at him. He then takes out his old wooden pipe, pulls some tobacco out of his pocket, and lights it up. He takes a nice long drag

Kakashi looks over at the burning corps on the ground and apologetically says "Sorry Hokage sama. I shouldn't have told them Naruto's secret. I know you'll have to deal with a lot of bullshit after this for killing so many villagers…"

"Don't worry about it Kakashi, just fallow me to my office. I learned a few medical techniques from my old student, I'll take a look at Naruto. I don't think it's wise to trust the hospitals at this point."

"Hai, Hokage sama." And the two ninjas disappeared into the night…

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Hokage's office, a little bit later  
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Kakashi laid Naruto down on the couch and Sarutobi went over to him as his hands started glowing green. He ran his hands over Naruto's body several times using his simple diagnostic jutsu and determined that he was okay.

"You know , Hokage sama, this could have all been prevented two years ago if you had just listened to sen-!"

"NO! I will not hear of this again! I will not have Naruto exposed to that sort of life!"

"It's not your call! His father decided-"

"And he was being a fool! The Kyuubi was minutes away-!"

"Minato sensei was no fool! He always kept a calm mind, I don't care what was happening, he planned for this-!"

"I SAID NO!"

"YOU CAN'T SAY NO FOREVER! It was sensei's last wish to you, you can't just-!"

"I won't have Naruto raised alone to be a killing machine!"

"You stupid old man! Minato sensei planned for all of this!" Kakashi stormed over to Sarutobi's desk, opened a drawer, and pulled out a small scroll that was wrapped around the handle of a three pronged kunai. He opened it and began reading aloud. "If Naruto has not been accepted by the villagers by the age of three-"

"I know what it says!"

"-He is to be removed from the village and kept safe within 'the vault'. The village will be told of all secrets surrounding him, and the truth will be taught to all academy students henceforth. He is to be trained to face all of the dangers that he will face after he becomes a ninja. And make no mistake old man; the ninja path is the only path that will allow Naruto to survive in this world. He is to be given all of my and Kushina's money, which is to be handled by my trusted accountant, Akio Haruno **(1)**, until Naruto is old enough to handle it himself. I know that you won't like this plan, old man, but please trust me. Naruto is five now damn it! What are doing!"

"I can't do it Kakashi. I can't condemn Naruto to a life of isolation and constant training. Perhaps you have forgotten, but the vault that Minato refers to in that letter is the tower in the center of the forest of death, the most dangerous place in fire country!"

"That vault is the safest place on earth and you know it! Nothing could harm him in there! And he has to train any way, he is the container of the Kyuubi!"

"Not before he's had a chance at a childhood, I won't have Naruto raised in isolation!"

"He won't be! Sensei thought of that already! Akio has a daughter the same age-!"

"And his wife hates Naruto! Chie would never allow little Sakura anywhere near Naruto!"**(2)**

"Sensei's old teammates both have children close to Naruto's age. They would certainly allow them to become friends!"

"Hiashi and Tsume are clan heads; they have to keep up their public face! There's no way they would want their children associating with Naruto!"

"And let's not forget Jin! His wife, Yukari, might have died, but he never blamed Naruto for that! They were great friends with Kushina, and Tenten is only a year older then Naruto! What reason could Jin possibly have to prevent Naruto from becoming friends with her, he technically owns his weapon's shop, remember! He's a great blacksmith but Kushina funded him!"**(3)**

"And when will they become friends? Do you have any idea how many enemies Naruto would have if the world knew of his heritage? He would have to train none stop if that got out!"

"YOU STUPID OLD FOOL! Can't you see that you're failing Naruto? Every day somebody beats him, and most of the time somebody's trying to kill him! Sensei saw this coming and prepared for it, but you're too much of an idiot to trust him!" Both men stopped yelling for a few minutes, both just staring at each other. Amazingly, Naruto still slept on the couch, despite all the yelling.

The old man suddenly slumped over and sighed sadly. "I don't know what to do, Kakashi. If I continue as I have been, Naruto may not even live to see his next birthday, but if I go through with Minato's plan, I condemn him to a life that will probably turn him into a cold hearted killing machine. I just don't know what to do."

"Then trust sensei. He was the best of all of us. He saw and caused more death then anyone on earth, and he was still uncorrupted, he remained the most honorable man on the planet, no matter what happened. He knew what he was doing. We just have to have faith in him."

"Perhaps you're right. I just don't know…"

"No one can know anything. The future is always unpredictable. But you know as well as I do that Naruto can not survive the life he has now." There was a long pause. Sarutobi was thinking everything over, and Kakashi didn't want to disturb him.

"Alright Kakashi, you win. I have no better alternative, so we'll stick to Minato's plan." Sarutobi walked over to his desk and sat down. He sighed and took another long drag from his pipe. He then pushed the intercom button on his desk prompting a static like noise and a 'click' "Initiate order 1391412015."

"Yes Hokage sama" A female voice responded

Sarutobi looked over at Naruto's sleeping form and sighed. "Rest well, Naruto Uzumaki; because tomorrow, you wake up as Naruto Namikaze."

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To be continued  
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I'd just like to say that I am aware that the first scene, where Naruto gets beaten in the ally, was extremely rushed. It's because, well, it's over done, really. You all know the drill. Naruto almost dies, people save him, then the basis of the entire story is revealed, usually in Sarutobi's office. I've seen it a thousand times! Anyway, I just couldn't find it in myself to give a shit. Whatever, you'll all forget about it soon anyway…

Also, in case you didn't catch some of the details that were revealed, Sakura's dad was Minato's accountant, and now he's in charge of Naruto's money, which he has a lot of. Tenten's dad runs a weapon's shop, which Kushina technically owned, since he didn't have the money to start his own business, but she did. So now Naruto technically owns it. The whole village, kiddies included, will be told of the truth behind what happened the night of the Kyuubi attack, including the fact that Naruto is the Yondaime's son. Naruto was supposed to be taken away a while ago, but Sarutobi failed him. I think that's it… Oh yea, Tsume Inuzuka and Hiashi Hyuuga were Minato's teammates back in the day.

**(1) **The name means intelligent, according to a baby naming website I found. This is Sakura's father, in case you didn't realize that

**(2) **Sakura's mother. Chie Nakamura is the voice actress for Sakura in the anime. I make up these characters as Sakura's parents never show up in the manga or anime

**(3) **Tenten not only has no parents in the manga, but no last name either. Jin means virtue, and Yukari Tamura is Tenten's voice actress in the anime. Those are her parents' names, and Tamura will be her last name now

So, what do you think? Good? Bad? You don't care? Put it in a review!


	2. legacy of the whirling flash

Hey, remember me? I'm the guy that started that awesome story a few months ago and never updated. Before you kill me, I had a bunch of reasons for not updating. Okay, now you can kill me, because I'm not going to tell you what they are. Some bad stuff happened that's personal, okay? Anyway, the bad stuff led to a bit of what I guess you can call writer's block. Then there were exams and I found out that I'm almost guaranteed to fail Spanish for the year. So… MY life sucks. Sorry about the wait and that's all I've got to say about that.

Anyway, I'd like to thank eleven of the twelve people that reviewed. You guys are the real reason this didn't take a lot longer. As for the other guy… FUCK YOU! I appreciate the correction and all, but you can go to hell. I made a slight error in my summery where I mixed two letters up and this fucker gets all pissey about it. So I made a slight error, you think you're perfect ass hole? You don't even have a profile, so I know for damn sure that you never wrote anything on this site. I was tired when I did the summery, okay? Fucker…

Anyway, let's talk about the one thing everybody seems to care about. Pairings! Everybody likes pairings, even me. So, let's see here. Three of you suggested Naruto/Hinata and two of you said Naruto/Sakure. Well, that's interesting, I hadn't even considered those. I don't really like stutter girl, and mega forehead bitch I might have other plans for. Whatever, all the main characters are like, five right now, so I guess I'll just wait till later to decide on anything. Until then, feel free to suggest any pairing you want, I will probably take you suggestions into account, but there is a really good chance of me doing whatever I want. I guess that's it so… Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own shit! You try to sue me and I swear to all that is unholy and dark that your head will hang on my wall forever! I can't even fucking draw, nor do I speak Japanese! The fact that I even have to do this at all pisses me off to no end! (If you can't tell, I have anger issues)

Chapter 2: Legacy of the Whirling Flash

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Hokage's Office  
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Naruto woke up feeling infinitely better then he had in a long while. He was warm, dry, and comfortable laying there on the Hokage's sofa. But even more significant then that was the fact that nobody was trying to kill him, and that was enough to make Naruto content. He wanted to just lie there all day. He may have, in fact, if not for the other voices he heard in the room.

"I'm sorry for calling you all here on such short notice, and so late at night. But this is important" Naruto recognized the first voice as old man Hokage.

"We can see that, old man. So, have you finally realized how stupid you've been when it comes to Naruto's safety?" This new voice was ruff and wild sounding, and obviously feminine. Now why were they talking about him, he had to wonder.

"Tsume, be more respectful. He is still the Hokage, even if his decisions regarding Naruto have been… questionable at best." The third voice was new to Naruto as well, this one sounding calm and smooth, each word spoken as thought it were carefully chosen.

"Coming from you, Hiashi, that hurts much more then Tsume's blunt words. But you're right, both of you. I have been quite a fool. If Minato were alive, he'd probably kick my ass for what I've done."

"You're damn right he would! And I swear, if you don't put things right soon, I'll do it for him! I don't care if you do have them crazy ninja tricks of yours; I'll beat some sense into you yet, old man!" A fourth voice, this one just as new as the other two he hadn't yet put faces to. This one was a deep, rough sounding man that was clearly angry about something. Something that apparently had to do with him, or, more accurately, something the old man had done to him.

"Calm down, Jin, That's why I called you all here. I realize now that the only way to give Naruto the safety and happiness he deserves is to stick with Minato's plan B."

"It's about time…" Came a grumble from what sounded like the corner of the room. This voice Naruto recognized. It was the wolf masked ANBU that frequently saved Naruto's life. He had told him his name once, Kakashi, and he also taught him things in his spare time whenever Naruto was in the hospital, which was quite often. He had taught him how to read, how to write, and, most importantly, how to run quickly.

"Yea, I'll say. It took you long enough old man. What, did you just randomly decide that Minato didn't know what he was doing? Did you think that leaving him out in the streets was a better idea? Or were you _hoping_ that he would get killed? Is the council becoming too much of an inconveniencefor you, so you decided to leave my nephew out with the wolves!"

"Jin! That's enough; you've gone a bit too far with that one."

"No Hiashi, I deserve it. My mistake has put Naruto through two years of hell. Let him insult me, I've earned it." Now, Naruto may have only been five, but he was a pretty smart kid; and he was pretty sure he just heard that guy call himself his uncle. Does that mean that he has family? Is it possible, that all of his hopes, wishes, dreams, and prayers have come true?

Naruto had to see what was going on, but he wanted to listen more. So, he carefully opened one eye a crack, trying to keep up the façade that he was asleep. He saw the Hokage, standing in front of his desk in his usual white robe. He saw the wolf ANBU, Kakashi. Accept he wasn't wearing his mask. He was wearing a different mask, though, this one was all cloth, and left one, lazy looking, black beady eye exposed.

The woman who's voice he heard looked wild and beastly, with untamed dark brown hair, vertical grey slits for pupils, wearing average, forest green ninja attire, a big grey and black wolf with an eye patch sitting next to her, and two strange, triangle-like markings under her eyes.

The calm sounding voice presumably came from the tall, black haired man with white eyes, who was wearing all white clothing and an expression that revealed about as much emotion as the wall.

The voice that Naruto suspected was his uncle most likely came from the really tall, really strong looking man. He was taller then anybody else in the room, at least six feet two inches tall (about 188 cm), and when combined with his ridiculously muscular build, he looked like a giant in Naruto's eyes; a giant in a dark red T-shirt and blue jeans, with black, messy hair and brown eyes.

"I ain't got time to stand here and insult you all night. So what're you gonna do to make my nephew's life better?"

It was at this moment that the door opened and an average height, pink haired man wearing a blue business suit walked in.

"Sorry I'm late, Hokage Sama. Chie wouldn't let me go; she doesn't think I should be here…"

"It's alright, Akio. You showed up just in time. We were just about to discuss the plan for Naruto's future, and our guest of honor just happened to have just woken up." Everybody looked over to Naruto and realized that he was, indeed, awake. He was pretending to be asleep, but the fact that one of his eyes snapped shut when everybody looked at him was a dead give away. "Hello Naruto, how are you feeling?"

"I'm okay" Naruto answered a little timidly as he sat up, knowing that the gig was up. It was starting to unnerve him a bit that there were so many people staring at him.

"Naruto, I've been a fool. I've been keeping something from you that I really should've told you a long time ago. Naruto, I believe it's time I told you who your parents were."

Naruto's eyes shot up, and a look of absolute hope crossed his face. But he looked down shortly afterwards, something about what the Hokage had said bothered him greatly.

"Were?" Naruto had always hoped to one day find his parents. But the Hokage made it seem like they were already dead.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but your parents are dead." Hiashi, blunt as always.

Naruto was about ready to cry, but he held the tears back. He needed to listen; he needed to at least find out who they were. It was Jin that started the story.

"Your mother was Kushina Uzumaki, my sister. Not by blood, but in the sense that we grew up together. My parents adopted her when she was a little younger then you. She was actually born in a different country, one called Uzu no Kuni. She was born as the heir to the powerful Uzumaki clan." Sarutobi took it up from here, adding some history to the mix.

"The Uzumaki clan was once considered the most powerful ninja clan in the world. Their mastery of the elements was second to none. Their unique kenjutsu style was truly something to behold. The sheer physical ability they trained themselves to be capable of since the age of five was amazing, bordering on ridiculous. When all the ninja clans gathered together to make the hidden villages, the Uzumaki clan chose not to ally themselves with any other clans, choosing instead to make their own village by themselves. And they did not fail. Uzu no Kuni was the most powerful of the miner hidden villages, almost reaching the power of the five great shinobi villages, perhaps even surpassing some of us at times when we weren't at our best.

But they were still no match for Kirigakure, especially during the reign of the Sandaime Mizukage, a ruthless dictator that wished to expand his empire, and for reasons unknown, eradicate all kekkei genkai users. It just so happens that the Uzumaki bloodline ability was one of the most powerful to ever exist. As such, he conquered Uzu no Kuni and killed the entire Uzumaki clan; with the exception of one. Your grandmother, Emi Uzumaki **(1)**, escaped with her life, as well as your unborn mother, and the entire Uzumaki jutsu library and most of its vast fortune." Jin started again, taking all the more personal aspects of this story.

"Your grandmother, Emi, died from complications during childbirth. Your mother was sent to Konoha's only orphanage, just like you were. No one was told of the fortune or the jutsu she would inherit when she became older, so that people wouldn't try and steal them from her. Even she didn't know. Konoha's orphanage is not only unkind to you, Naruto, it was never very well run, despite the fact that it is funded and regulated by our oh-so competent government." He paused to level a death glare at Sarutobi, who looked away in shame. The orphanage was actually owned by one particular member of the civilian council, and was not actually property of the state. But that was a discussion for another time.

"My parents saw her digging through a garbage can for food when she was four, and decided right then and there to adopt the poor child." Naruto winced in sympathy for her mother. He had actually done that a few times, and it was never very satisfying. "She came to live with us when I was seven, and I couldn't have been happier to have a little sister at the time. She was always a funny, hyperactive sort of person; a great kid to hang around with for a little kid like I was. Anyway, we grew up normally, neither of our parents wanting to turn us into ninjas. She inherited a LOT of money, and never had to work a day in her life after she became of age. But I wasn't so lucky; I had to get a job. Your mother was kind enough to lend me any money I would need, and I ended up paying the best blacksmith in fire country to teach me how to make ninja weapons. After my training, your mother bought a store, and funded my weapons shop. It was a good deal, she bought all the supplies I'd need to run the shop, and in return she would get a portion of the profits." At this point Tsume took over.

"When we were about 19 years old, my teammate, Minato, met your mother. I should probably mention, me, Hiashi here, and Minato were a ninja team back when we were genin. By that time, we had all been promoted and our team was disbanded, but we all stayed good friends. Anyway, your mother met him and after that, he would never shut up about her. She was all he would talk about, and more importantly, all he could think about. Anyone could tell that he was in love with her, and within a year of that, they already started talking about getting married." Akio's turn.

"Your father was a great man. We had been friends since we were around your age, you see. He went to the ninja academy, but I didn't. I became an accountant. In fact, I was his accountant. An accountant is basically someone who deals with your money, so you don't have to worry about it. But anyway, enough about my boring life; Minato was strong, he was driven, but most importantly, he hated to kill people. He couldn't take a life, he just couldn't do it. So he mastered skills that would allow him to fight without killing people." Sarutobi took over again.

"Fuinjutsu, the art of sealing; your father became the most powerful Fuinjutsu master to ever live. Fuinjutsu are a type of jutsu that seal objects, living beings, chakra, along with a wide variety of other things within another object **(2)**. But your father could do much more then that with it. He learned that rather than simply storing things, seals could actually _manipulate_ the chakra he put into a sealing jutsu to do whatever he wanted. With Fuinjutsu, your father could do anything." Kakashi began his bit.

"During the third great shinobi war, your father trained a genin team of his own. That team consisted of Rin Inuzuka, Obito Uchiha, both of whom are dead, and me. He taught me just about everything I know about being a ninja. During that war, he had no choice but to throw away any inhibitions he had towards killing people. War is brutal, and you can't afford to give mercy to an enemy that will show you none. So sensei created a jutsu that would allow him to kill hundred of shinobi in the blink of an eye, and he used Fuinjutsu to do it." Hiashi time.

"The **Hiraishin no jutsu** (Flying Thunder God Technique), a truly devastating attack that allowed him to teleport from place to place at the speed of light. He single handedly ended the third great shinobi war with that technique. Your father was perhaps the strongest shinobi to ever live." Sarutobi again.

"By that time I was already an old man, and by the time the war ended, I was just about ready to pass down my title as Hokage to the next generation. And there was your father, a loyal, powerful, intelligent man who I knew I could trust. I knew he was the right choice, and so I chose him to be the Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato."

Naruto's Eye's widened to the point that some of the occupants of the room were surprised they didn't fall out. His father was the fourth? How is that possible? It can't be, he must have heard wrong.

"Are you saying…?"

"Yes Naruto, my sensei, Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage, was your father."

Naruto was about ready to pass out from all the surprising news, and what do you know, that's exactly what he did.

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A minute or so later  
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Naruto woke up feeling groggy and confused. He had the strangest dream where- he saw that he was in the Hokage's office and that there were a bunch of people standing around him.

'_That was real? The fourth is my father, and my mother was the decedent of one of the most powerful ninja clans in history… Cool.'_ Thought Naruto as he began to sit up.

"Ah, Naruto, you're finally awake. I was starting to worry." Said Sarutobi with a kind smile.

"I'm alright old man… So, what happens now?"

"Actually Naruto, we still have more to tell you." Said Kakashi in an apologetic tone that suggested that whatever they were going to tell him wasn't going to be good.

"Naruto… Do you know the story of the Kyuubi no kitsune?" The old man asked him.

"Yea, it was a giant fox demon that attacked Konoha the day I was born; which is the reason people hate me so much, right?" Sarutobi answered

"I'm sorry Naruto, but I'm afraid it's much worse then that. The story goes that your father killed the beast… But that isn't exactly true."

"So the Kyuubi is still alive?" Hiashi spoke next.

"In a matter of speaking, yes. Remember what we told you about your father? He hated killing, so he became a master of sealing techniques; jutsus that would allow him to subdue his enemy instead of killing them." Kakashi's turn.

"The Kyuubi was unstoppable. Nothing any of us did was even affecting the beast. But sensei had a technique that could seal the beast away forever, at the cost of his own life." Sarutobi again.

"**Shiki Fujin** (Dead Daemon Consuming Seal). It summons the Shinigami to tear the soul out of any living being. The Kyuubi was so powerful, however, that not even the god of death could devour its soul. So instead, Minato took the soul of the Kyuubi and sealed it into a new born child. But Minato couldn't just trust anyone with a power like that… He could only trust his own son to have the strength to master a power such as that and use it for good purposes."

"…Hold on a second. Are you telling me that my father sealed a giant fox demon inside of me, and that's why everyone hates me?" Naruto was pissed. Why the fuck hadn't anyone told him about this before? And why in god's name did his own father put something like that inside of him?

"Naruto, you must understand that there was no choice. The Kyuubi would've killed us all, it had to be sealed."

"But why me? Why would my father do this to me, his own son? Didn't he even care?" Naruto's anger had dissipated and turned immediately to tears.

"Naruto, please understand. Your father could not have asked anyone else to give up their child to be used as the container for the Kyuubi. Besides, he already knew that your mother was dead, and that he would have to die to seal the demon away. He wanted to give you the power to defend yourself against all of the enemies he made throughout his life that would want to kill you for revenge against him. Naruto, it's not as if he wanted your life to be the way it has been… In fact, that was my fault."

"What do you mean?"

"The initial plan was to not tell anyone about the Kyuubi surviving, and we didn't. But somehow people found out anyway, and you were hated and mistreated for it. But your father knew that this might happen, and made a backup plan that would allow you to be raised in a secure location away from the village. You would be safe, but alone. But I didn't want you to be alone, Naruto, I wanted you to be able to live as normal a life as possible. I figured that people would see the error of their ways and stop their foolish hatred, but I was wrong. I'm so sorry Naruto, but please believe me when I say I did it because I thought it was best."

There was a long pause, an uncomfortable silence that defined the ears and troubled the mind. Everyone was wondering what was going through Naruto's head at that point. Finally, after a good six minutes, Naruto spoke in a quiet tone, almost a whisper.

"What about my mother? You never said what happened to her." Jin supplied the answer.

"She was hit by some flying rubble when a building exploded near her. She was running down the street, trying to find your father. The doctors managed to cut you out of her and save your life, but she had lost too much blood and died."

There was another long pause. Nobody knew what to say, this was a lot to take in for anybody, especially when you're only five years old. The silence was not broken by words this time, but instead by sobbing. Naruto couldn't hold it back anymore, and was now crying his eyes out. Nobody was inclined to stop him; hell, it was surprising that it had taken this long for Naruto to start crying. This was certainly a lot of bad news to receive in one day, especially if you're five.

Naruto let it all out. He cried for his mother; he cried because her family had been killed before she had ever met them; he cried because she went through the pain of never knowing her parents, just like he did; he cried because she was dead. He cried for his father; he cried because he had to see his wife die, then sacrifice his own life in the same day; he cried because he sealed a giant fucking fox demon inside of him. He cried because his family was dead, because everyone seems to hate him, and because he hasn't eaten in two days. But mostly he cried because his life was one big pile of rotting shit and he just couldn't fucking take it anymore.

He cried for so long, he fell asleep, and even in his sleep he would sob every now and then. The other occupants of the room remained silent for the longest time, none of them having much to say. When the silence was finally broken, it was by Kakashi's lazy voice.

"We didn't get to tell him the good news… Should we wake him up?"

"No" Sarutobi said, "Let him sleep. When he wakes up, his whole life will have changed. It's best to let him rest for now." And so they waited…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
A Few Hours Later, around 3:00 AM  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto woke up in the Hokage's office for the third time today, this time feeling depressed. His only real hope was that his parents were out there somewhere, just waiting for him to find them. But that hope was crushed, his parents were dead, gone before he was even borne. He would've kept crying as soon as he woke up if not for the fact that the emotional numbness had started to set in.

The other occupants in the room had fallen asleep, some in a chair, others on the floor. They had decided to take turns staying up so that somebody would be awake when Naruto woke up. It was currently Akio's turn, but he had fallen asleep ten minutes ago. Naruto got up off the couch, not really knowing what to do but not wanting to wake anyone up either. He walked over to the old man, who was sleeping in his chair behind his desk. On the desk in front of him was a letter addressed to Sarutobi, which caught Naruto's attention. What was so alluring about this letter was that at the bottom he could see that it was signed, 'Minato Namikaze'. It was a letter from his dad!

Naruto immediately read the entire thing, a few times. "If Naruto has not been accepted by the villagers by the age of three, he is to be removed from the village and kept safe within 'the vault'. The village will be told of all secrets surrounding him, and the truth will be taught to all academy students henceforth. He is to be trained to face all of the dangers that he will face after he becomes a ninja. And make no mistake old man; the ninja path is the only path that will allow Naruto to survive in this world. He is to be given all of my and Kushina's money, which is to be handled by my trusted accountant, Akio Haruno, until Naruto is old enough to handle it himself. I know that you won't like this plan, old man, but please trust me."

Naruto had no idea what the hell this 'vault' was, but he did know that the villagers hate him because of what he contains, and that maybe, _maybe, _being the son of the beloved fourth Hokage will make him more popular. He also knew that he would finally be trained to defend himself, which was awesome. And lastly, he knew that money was good, and that the pink haired man, Akio, who was sleeping on the floor, better be trustworthy, because it seems he now has control over all of his money. He did wonder how much money he actually had though…

"I suppose you have some questions." Naruto jumped, startled by Sarutobi's sudden words. Naruto looked at the old man, who was smiling in amusement.

"What is this vault my father speaks of?"

"The vault refers to a tower in the center of the forest of death, a small but dangerous forest on the outskirts of the village. The tower is protected by your father's Fuinjutsu, so none of the forest's deadly inhabitants will be able to hurt you there, and neither will anyone under Kage level who isn't permitted to enter. The vault itself is an actual vault, a large room within the tower that is sealed off by your father's most powerful Fuinjutsu. The vault has such powerful seals on it that it is believed to be completely inaccessible to anyone on earth other then you. That vault is, and probably always will be, THE safest place in the elemental nations."

That made Naruto feel a lot better. The vault, to him, sounded like a paradise. It was a place where nobody could hurt you, a place of absolute solitude, a place where you could hide from all the cruelty of the world. It was the kind of place Naruto had always dreamed of living. He looked over at Akio, who was sleeping on the floor.

"Can I trust him?" Naruto asked. "According to my father's letter, he now has control of my parents' money. He isn't going to steal any of it, is he?"

"You don't have to worry about that Naruto. Akio Haruno is one of the most trustworthy people I've ever met. He and your father had been friends since they were your age. He would never do anything to hurt you."

Naruto still didn't trust him, but he certainly felt better about him. That left only one question on Naruto's mind.

"In the letter, my dad said that the ninja path was the only path that would allow me to survive. What did he mean by that?"

"Well Naruto, your father was hated and feared in the countries that we fought against in the third great shinobi war; so hated, in fact, that the people of those countries would have no problem killing you to extract their revenge on him."

"Why do they hate him so much?"

"Because Naruto, as much as I hate to take credit away from the other ninjas of this village, your father pretty much won the third great shinobi war single handedly. The war itself started when our ally, Sunagakure, lost their leader. The Kazekage disappeared, and Suna desperately wanted to find him. They searched so vigorously for him that they ended up invading Iwagakure's border. Iwa was very angry about their borders being invaded like that, so they ended up fighting. We have been allies with Suna since the first great shinobi war, so when they started fighting Iwa, we had to help them.

Suna had, however, lost their Kazekage, as well as their strongest shinobi, Sasori of the red sands, not to mention the fact that they were the weakest of all the five great hidden villages. They were in no position to be fighting this war, so we ended up doing most of the fighting. Iwa was, at the time, one of the strongest hidden villages, and with Suna only being able to help a little bit, we were having trouble winning. But then your father came along, killing hundreds of shinobi in the blink of an eye. He drove them back, killed most of their army, and made such a name for himself that when Iwa tried to ask their ally, Kumogakure, for help, they joined the war for only one battle, then retreated because your father single handedly killed one hundred and sixty five of their shinobi in that one battle. **(3)**

For that reason, your father was extremely hated in Kumo. The people of Kumo hate the fact that the rest of the world now sees them as weak because they were frightened out of a war by one man, and they blame that one man, your father, for that fact. But it's Iwa that you really need to worry about. Your father killed so many of Iwa's shinobi during the war, that when they finally did surrender, the Tsuchikage actually surrendered to your father personally; not to Konoha, not to our shinobi forces, not even to me, the Hokage, but to your father, a single jonin."

Naruto had to widen his eyes at that. He had heard stories of the legendary Yondaime Hokage, but never anything like that. To kill that many people, to be that feared… Naruto is going to have to train hard to be as powerful as his dad; he has a lot of enemies after all.

"…"

"…"

Neither party had anything else to say…

"Well… I guess now's as good a time as any." Sarutobi said out of the blue.

"For what?"

"To show you your new home. Wake the hell up everyone; we're going to the vault!"

The unconscious people in the room all stated to stir, snapping up once they realized that Naruto was awake and that their Hokage had just told them they were leaving.

"What, you mean right now?" Akio asked incredulously. "It's like, three o'clock in the morning!"

"So? That just means that nobody will notice us. Now everybody who can't do the **shunshin no jutsu **pair up with somebody who can. We're headed to training ground forty four. Move!"

And in a mini whirlwind of leaves, they all disappeared…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
Training ground forty four  
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With the whirling of many leaves, seven people appeared in front of the gate to the forest of death.

"Hey, why didn't we just appear at the tower?" Jin asked, annoyed by the possibility that they may have to walk a while.

"This gat isn't just for show you know. " Sarutobi said. "Imbedded in the posts that hold this fence up are seals. Seals that when set up in a circle, create a barrier that jutsus can not penetrate. Jutsus like the shunshin can't get you through this gate."

"So we're going to have to walk through this forest?" Akio asked, fear lacing his voice as obviously as a retarded screaming monkey at a funeral.

"Don't be ridiculous." Kakashi said. "It would take all day to walk through this forest at a civilian's pace. This barrier is ineffective once you're inside the gate. All we have to do is walk through the gate, shunshin to the next barrier, which is about a thirty yard radius around the tower, and walk up to the door."

And with that, everybody walked through the gate and disappeared again.

XXXXXXXXXXXX  
Forest of death  
XXXXXXXXXXXX

From where they appeared, the group could see the tower. It was an odd, humongous, towering structure that didn't exactly look like an impressive piece of architecture, but was better then the forest around them. Speaking of the forest, they could feel it all around them. They could feel its hunger for their flesh. With the sound of a mighty roar in the distance, everyone thought it best to step forward into the area around the tower where the plant life was clearly less wild, and no animals seemed to ever have walked on the dirt. Obviously the barrier had an effect on the wildlife here.

Safely inside the barrier, the group of four shinobi, two civilians, and one child walked up to the massive double doors that served as the secure entrance to what could very well be the safest place to live on the entire planet.

Once they reached the door, Sarutobi reached into his cloak and pulled out a three pronged kunai. He unraveled the scroll that was rapped around the handle to reveal a circular sealing array. Sarutobi looked over the seal, nodded once, and rolled the scroll back up. He then did something quite odd; he stabbed the door. When the blade met the door, the entire thing was instantaneously covered in glowing blue seals. The seals grew brighter and brighter for a few seconds, then shattered as if they were made of glass.

After that little light show, the deceptively frail looking Hokage pushed the massive double doors open with ease, and everyone started walking inside. As Naruto started to walk into the tower, Sarutobi stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Here Naruto, take this. It's the key to your new home." He held out the kunai he had stabbed the door with, and Naruto took it eagerly.

'_My home…'_ Naruto stood there and stared at the knife. It was the key to his home, _his home_. He had a home… Naruto could hardly believe that this was happening.

"Well are you gonna stand there all day boy? Come inside already!" Came the gruff voice of Jin Tamura to snap him out of his thoughts. And with that, Naruto entered his new home…

XXXXXXXXXXXXX  
Inside the tower  
XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The first thing Naruto saw when he entered the tower was a big room with a poster on the wall in front of him with some writing that was mostly too faded to read and two balconies above him on either side with doors that lead further into the tower. **(4)**

"This tower has six floors and a basement." Kakashi began. "The first floor has a lounging area to the right," he indicated the balcony to the right "and the dining hall to the left." He indicates the other balcony. "Above that is the fighting arena, as well as many training facilities. Above that there are three floors of living quarters. And lastly, the final floor is more like a huge closet, since it's not that big it's used to store things that might not seem very important; like old books, cleaning supplies, things like that."

"But we only have business in the basement for right now. Follow me everyone, to the vault." Sarutobi announced. He then walked to the far end of the room and placed his hand on the wall. He pushed on the wall with his hand glowing with chakra, and a section of the wall actually went inward, and then slid aside, creating a door that led to a set of stairs that led to the basement.

They descended further into the tower, traveling down at least five floors into the ground. Finally, they reached a medium sized empty room, the far wall of which had a massive door. It was even bigger then the entrance to the tower! This door had no handle, instead it had a slit in the door at Naruto's eye level, like a big key hole.

"Naruto, this door requires the same type of kunai as the one I gave you, but with a different seal." Sarutobi explained. "Here, this is the key to the vault; it's the only one that exists." He handed Naruto another three pronged kunai. "The door also requires your blood as an offering to open. The seals that keep the door closed are meant to make sure that nobody who is not related to your father or you mother can enter. In other words Naruto, you are the only person on earth with the blood necessary to open this door. Now make a small cut on your finger, get some blood on the kunai, and insert it into the slot, then give it a twist and remove the kunai."

Naruto did as instructed, wincing a bit as he cut his finger; he inserted the knife into the slot and twisted. He heard a click, indicating that the part of the locking mechanism that wasn't seal based had opened. Then the entire door glowed with blue sealing patterns, just like the entrance. When the seals shattered, the door began to open on its own, sliding into the wall in both directions until about half of it was in the wall. He could see inside the vault now, and to his disappointment, it appeared to be a big library.

The room was huge and empty. On every wall there were shelves upon shelves of scrolls and books. Each section of shelves had a name on the top. One was labeled 'Kakashi'; another was labeled 'Sarutobi'. Naruto wondered what the names were for, and why the old man and Kakashi had a shelf. Sarutobi answered his questions without him needing to ask.

"These scrolls and books are ninja techniques. This vault is the safest place on earth, so the people who new Minato, including myself, asked if they could put their techniques in here for safe keeping. You will find the life's work of Kakashi, myself, two of my students, Jiraiya and Tsunade, your father, Hiashi and Tsume here, as well as the entire collection of my families jutsus, the entire Sarutobi clan's jutsu library, as well as the libraries of the Inuzuka, Senju, and Uzumaki clans. And they are all at your disposal, each and every one of the people who put things in this vault have agreed to let you learn all of their techniques."

Naruto was in complete awe. He had all of these cool jutsus, all to himself! He could hardly believe this was real. He looked at all of the shelves, finding three just from his dad. One was labeled 'Fuinjutsu'; another was labeled 'advanced Fuinjutsu', and the last one was labeled 'other'. He saw that the Uzumaki clan jutsus spanned over the entire right wall, and the Sarutobis had three shelves. The old man alone had almost as many jutsus as his clan library, but managed to stuff them all onto two shelves. Kakashi was actually adding to his shelf, pulling over forty scrolls out of a sealing scroll he kept in his vest.

Tsume's shelf and the Inuzuka shelf were the same; it appeared as if Tsume didn't have too many original techniques, and that the Inuzuka clan didn't have a very extensive jutsu library. Hiashi's shelf was almost empty. The shelves labeled Jiraiya and Tsunade were full, all eight of them. Six shelves were devoted to Tsunade, though they appeared to not all be jutsus. It looked as if she had compiled all the information she had on medic jutsus, the human body, and everything she knew about the medical arts in here.

All of the shelves were covered by glass, which was covered in seals that made it as strong, if not stronger, then the walls. The large, empty floor and the fact that the whole room was impenetrable and non-flammable made this room perfect for learning new and powerful jutsus in private. At the far end of the room, there was a door in between two of the shelves.

"That door leads to the other rooms of the vault." Sarutobi said after he saw Naruto looking in the direction of the door. "This vault has a study, where your father made many of his jutsus, a storage area, where you will find training equipment, a walk in freezer, where you can store a lot of food, and another storage room, inside of which you will find a lot of money."

"Don't worry Naruto, I was great friends with your father, I won't do anything with your money that you don't want me to." Said Akio.

"Speaking of money," Jin started, "your mom legally owned my weapon's shop, so now you own it. One of these days we should talk about some stuff, like the percent of the profits I kind owe you, and the fact that I still need the financial support your mother was giving to my shop to really get my business going."

"Enough about money." Sarutobi said annoyed "There's still something to show you Naruto." Sarutobi led Naruto to the door, and everyone followed, even Kakashi, as he was now finished placing all the scrolls on the shelves.

They walked through the door only to end up in a short hallway with three doors. They walked up to the door at the end of the hallway and walked through it, entering a fairly large room with more books on shelves, another door to the right, and a desk on the far wall.

"This is your father's study, and I believe this is where you will find his last words to you." Indeed, sitting on the desk were two letters, one covered in tear marks, the other covered in blood stains. "The door leads to all your money, I think we should leave you alone to read your letters. Come on everyone; let's give Naruto some privacy for this."

With everyone out of the room, Naruto walked up to the desk, trembling. These were his parent's last words to him. He could hardly believe that after living his whole life alone, he would finally get to hear from his parents. He picked up the bloody one first, the one from his mother.

Dear Naruto

I'm your mother, Kushina Uzumaki. I'm dieing, and I wanted to tell you I love you before I pass away. You're in my arms right now actually, but you won't remember this. I love you so much Naruto and I hope that you will be able to live a happy life. I know that you will have to face a certain burden… I wish there was another way, but you are the only one who can hold back the Kyuubi, my son. I will let your father explain why in his letter, I can feel myself slipping away. Just know that we both care deeply for you, and that we will be watching over you always. Goodbye my son.

Love,

Your mother, Kushina Uzumaki

PS: I'm sorry for bleeding on this so much

Naruto was in tears. It was enough for him to know that he was loved. He always had this deep fear that his parents hated him just as much as every one else and had simply abandoned him. That was actually what the caretakers at the orphanage told him, but for the sake of his sanity his mind forced him into denial, luckily. He was overjoyed to know that his parents did not abandon him, that he was loved, that not everybody in the world hated him… After a few minutes of tears of joy, he decided to read the letter from his father.

Dear Naruto

Hey, it's me, your father. If you are reading this, then you are either a chūnin, or the village did not accept you. If it's the former, congratulations! I doubt it though; I know how foolish people really are. I have no delusions that people are smart, and I'm sorry for what I have put you through. Please don't hate me for what I had to do; I have good reasons for choosing you.

First of all, how could I have asked another parent to give up their child when I wasn't willing to use my own for the sealing? I couldn't have done that. Second of all, the power of the Kyuubi is enormous; I could not trust just anyone with a power like that. The only person who I can trust at birth is you, my own son. Besides, with the enemies you'll face, you will need that power. But most importantly, I chose you because of the traits you inherited from your mother. The Kyuubi's chakra is incredibly dangerous and deadly to the human body. Any normal baby that had the Kyuubi sealed into them would be fried to a crisp, but not you. You're an Uzumaki, and the Kyuubi's fiery chakra is nothing that you can't handle.

The Uzumaki bloodline is the strongest in the world. Not even the shringan can compete with it. The bloodline is twofold. First of all, Uzumakis are born with two elemental affinities. You probably don't know what I'm talking about yet, but I have limited time, so you'll have to ask your sensei about it. Now, most bloodlines that give people multiple elements are limited to two specific elements, like the Senju clan, which was capable of combining the elements of water and earth to wake Mokuton jutsu. The Uzumakis, however, were born with random elements. This means that the entire clan combined had access to all of the elements, and every combination of them. You will discover your two elements when you're strong enough to learn nature manipulation.

The second ability of the Uzumaki clan is an incredible healing ability. You've probably noticed by now that you heal really fast, well that's because of your Uzumaki blood. You will heal from miner cuts and bruises in minutes, larger wounds in hours and pretty much any non-lethal wound in a day at the most. You are immune to most poisons, and severed limbs will grow back, though it will take weeks. Your mother actually lost her finger once in a cooking accident, but it grew back in a week. It was truly amazing. This ability is why I had to choose you for the sealing. Nobody else could have survived the Kyuubi's chakra, you, with your healing ability, can surely live through it.

I'm running out of time, but there is one more thing I have to tell you. The Kyuubi did not attack Konoha of its own accord. Madara Uchiha is still alive and used Kyuubi to attack Konoha again. That is the true danger that you will face Naruto, you alone can kill Madara and save Konoha from his wrath. You must train hard Naruto; you must become strong enough to kill that man. He is responsible for the deaths of all those who lost their lives tonight, he is responsible for the fact that I have to seal the Kyuubi into you, and he is responsible for killing Kushina, my love, my angel, your mother. If there is one thing I don't want to do, it's make you some kind of avenger, but there is no one else who can do it. Kill that man Naruto! I want to meet him in the belly of the Shinigami one day so that I may tear him to pieces!

On this desk you will find a scroll containing the **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**. That jutsu will be the key to your power. A Kage bunshin gives you all of its memories when it is dispelled, so I want you to use them to train. If you make a Kage bunshin and tell it to learn a jutsu, you can learn something else while it learns that jutsu, allowing you to learn twice as fast. But you have the Kyuubi sealed in you, and you are an Uzumaki, who are known to have really high chakra capacities. You can make thousands of clones, meaning you can learn things thousands of times faster. Make use of this jutsu Naruto, it will be your greatest weapon, just as it was mine. I love you my son, now make me proud!

Love,

Your father, Minato Namikaze

Naruto wasn't crying this time. He had a look of determined rage upon his face. He would kill the man who ruined his life that much was certain! He had to calm down; he didn't want to turn into an avenger, his father wouldn't have wanted that, it said so in the letter. He took a deep breath, and his expression changed to pure determination. He wouldn't kill that man because of hate, he would kill him because of justice. He would kill him for all the people he killed, he would kill him to make his father proud, he would kill him because if he didn't, nobody else could.

Naruto found the scroll with the kage bunshin. He had learned from Kakashi how to draw out his chakra last week. That was all he knew, but he would use that knowledge to learn this jutsu and become strong! He got to work, trying as best he could to learn the kage bunshin, even though he had never had a lesson on how to do jutsu, not one lesson on chakra control, or hand signs, or anything. He only had the very basics, but Naruto Namikaze would learn the kage bunshin no jutsu by the end of the day, believe it mother fuckers!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
Twelve hours later  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sarutobi sat up and yawned. He had fallen asleep on the concrete floor, and now he was in pain. Everyone else was still asleep on the floor. He cursed their youth; his old bones would be feeling this pain for much longer then any of them. Suddenly, Naruto burst through the door screaming.

"I did it, I did it! I am the greatest!"

Everyone started to stir, groaning about the pain they were feeling from sleeping on the floor again.

"Ah Naruto, you're back. What did you manage to do in all that time?" Asked the old man, trying not to sound angry about the fact that he had to sleep on the concrete floor for hours because of this boy.

"Look, look. Look at what I can do! **Kage bunshin no jutsu**!" A single clone of Naruto popped out of existence, and promptly feinted along with the real one. The clone disappeared, but the two Narutos bumped into each other as they fell, proofing that they were both solid. Everybody was stunned, to say the least.

"When did he even learn to use his chakra?" Hiashi asked, stunned.

"I taught it to him last week, but I only showed him how to tap into his chakra, I was going to start teaching him little by little until he could learn the kawarimi no jutsu, so that he would have a better chance at surviving on the streets. But to have mastered the kage bunshin in twelve hours with only the most basic of knowledge concerning chakra…" Kakashi said, just as astonished.

"This boy will be a legend!" Tsume yelled out suddenly

"No" Sarutobi said knowingly "He will be a god."

XXXXXXXXXXXX  
To be continued  
XXXXXXXXXXXX

Holy shit, Naruto is awesome! Yes he just did that, and yes I know that many of you will probably tell me how impossible that is. But I don't care, because I'm the all powerful author, and what I say goes!

**(1) **Emi Shinohara does the voice of Kushina during her short appearance in the anime.

**(2)** This explanation is a direct quote from Naruto pedia (dot) com. It's where I get all the information on the anime/manga that I can't remember off the top of my head.

**(3) **According to Narutopidia, and my own memory of the manga/anime, it is never actually suggested that Kumo was involved with the third great shinobi war in any way, shape, or form. I believe that it is a completely fan based assumption that they were, but it's convenient to the plot for Kumo to hate Minato, so for the sake of both my plot and accuracy with details from cannon, I have made this compromise. They had almost nothing to do with the war, but enough for Kumo to want Naruto dead.

**(4)** I'm not good at describing places, if you want to know what the tower looks like, inside and out, it's in the manga, volume 7, chapter 63: the other face, starting on page 15. You can also try googleing it.

Review! Lord Jashin commands it!


	3. The Fall of a Child

Chapter 3: The Fall of a Child

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, do you really think I'd be writing this for free?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
In the tower, fighting arena  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto threw a punch, but it was dodged, and his adversary sweep kicked him. As he fell, he was punched in the gut, and he disappeared in a poof of smoke.

"God damn it Naruto, stop with the clones already!"

"Kiba, watch your language!"

"Sorry mom."

Naruto was currently having the time of his life doing his favorite activity, sparring with his loud mouth friend Kiba. They were in the fighting arena inside the tower, which is used for preliminary matches during the chunin exams, with Kiba's mom supervising them.

"You're just jealous because I'm more awesome then you."

"Shut up Naruto! If I could make those awesome clones, I'd be able to beat you up no problem!"

"But you can't, and that's why you're jealous."

"I am not! Get over here so I can hit you!"

And so the fight continued. Over the past six months, Naruto has gotten much stronger and has made many new friends. Sakure was a bit too girly for Naruto when he first met her, but he soon found out that she was incredibly competitive. When she saw how strong he was, she wanted to get stronger too (the constant taunts Naruto kept throwing at her about how weak she was also may have been a contributing factor).

Hinata was really shy, and Naruto thought she was a bit weird, but she was really nice. When Naruto found out that her cousin was a jerk to her because of something that happened two years ago which she had no control over, he wanted to kick his ass. Unfortunately, he wasn't allowed to leave the tower, so instead, he managed to drag Hinata into training with him, that way she could kick his ass for him.

Tenten was the oldest friend Naruto had made. She was also the strongest. She was only six, but she was already really good at throwing kunai and shuriken. She was also getting good at using a sword. She was the toughest sparring opponent Naruto had, and the only one that had ever beaten Naruto in a fight (Except of course when one of his teachers decided to spar with him). She was also a great friend, and played the rougher games with him and Kiba that the other girls didn't like too much.

Then there was Kiba, the only male friend Naruto had made over these past couple months. He was a loud kid who was really competitive and thought that he was the most awesomest thing in the whole world. He was also a bit of an idiot, and was really fun to mess with. In other words, a perfectly fun five year old boy that is a great friend for Naruto.

In the way of his training, Naruto learned all of the basic stuff already. He can do the three academy jutsus, he can walk on walls (much to his friends' envy), and he has grown much stronger thanks to a ridiculous training regimen that Kakashi stole from Maito Gai, Konoha's green beast. This training meant that Naruto is wearing weights at all times that he got from Jin's shop.

Speaking of Jin, Akio has been busy with Naruto's money. He bought the materials that Jin would need to make extremely high quality ninja gear and Jin got to work. With the increased quality of his merchandise and the copious amount he was able to make with the never ending supply of materials that Naruto's damn near infinite wealth provided, Jin is now making seven times what he was making six months ago, and thirty percent of that went to Naruto, making him even richer, if that was possible.

Akio also bought a few small businesses for Naruto. He bought a grocery store chain, so that Naruto would never again have to worry about people not letting him buy food. He bought the Ichiraku ramen bar at Naruto's insistence, and thanks to a bit of genius on Naruto's part, started selling the 'ramen on the go', which is a cup full of ramen that you could take with you. Thanks to that, the small ramen bar became a huge hit and Teuchi was able to send his daughter Ayame to a private medical school, where she could pursue her dream of becoming a doctor. Teuchi also expanded his business to several more locations, and with the 'ramen on the go', he now owned Konoha's official fast food restaurant. Needless to say, he was living life easier now.

The last thing Akio did to make Naruto more money was to introduce him to his wife. She hated Naruto, and tried to poison their daughter with her hate. But Akio knew the truth about Naruto's heritage and wasn't going to let that happen. Honestly, he was disappointed in his wife for her idiocy, but after she found out that Naruto was the son of the forth, her hatred faded, and Akio was forgiving enough to make amends with her.

Anyway, the part of that which made Naruto money was the fact that his wife designed clothing, and was pretty good at it, but she never managed to sell any of her designs. With Naruto's permission, she had the money to open her own store with a full staff and a shit load of merchandise in no time. Sakura's mom was now the owner of 'cherry blossoms clothing line', sold exclusively at 'the blooming fields' clothing store. **(1)**

With all of this extra money he was making, Naruto decided to buy Konoha's orphanage. You see, after the Kyuubi attack Konoha was in a very bad state and had very little money. They just didn't have the funds to build and maintain an orphanage. However, Konoha's civilian council, unlike the shinobi council, is elected by a vote of the people. A reelection was coming up and Konoha was full of orphans, roaming the streets and filling up the hospital's nursery. So, a council member who was particularly wealthy bought some property and built an orphanage in order to gain popularity.

The orphanage was always owned by a rich councilor, but the one who originally owned the orphanage died in the Kyuubi attack, so this new guy took advantage of the situation and won the reelection. Unfortunately, both of the mentioned councilors were very greedy, and so Konoha never had a very well run orphanage. For this reason, it was very surprising to everyone when a rumor started floating around that the orphanage had been renovated, a new playground was built, all of the employees were replaced, a bunch of fresh food was suddenly shipped there, and the building itself was under repairs. It seemed as though Konoha's vast collection of orphans was finally going to be happy. Many people were surprised to hear that it was the Kyuubi brat who had bought the orphanage and was fixing it up.

Speaking of the idiots in Konoha, they were all recently told that Naruto was the son of their beloved forth Hokage. It was a big shock to the people, and one that would cause major chaos. Some people had always honored the Yondaime's wish; those people were simply ashamed of their fellow citizens for their actions towards Naruto, and at themselves for not noticing the resemblance. Many people felt ashamed of themselves for what they had done; they had ignored and abused the son of their beloved hero because of blind hatred.

Some people felt so guilty that they walked into the local police station and confessed assaulting, or even attempting to murder an innocent child. Some people went up to ANBU guards and told them that they had ignored the son of their heroic leader and had given him cold glares. When they were told that those things were not crimes and that they should go home, they begged the ANBU to punish them anyway. When they refused, some people actually went so far as to punch the ANBU in the face so that they would at least be punished for something.

Still, there are those who hold on to their hatred. Many people believe that the Hokage was lying to protect the boy, and that the 'demon loving old fool' is disgracing the Yondaime's memory. There are also those who simply don't care who Naruto is, those people see Naruto as the Kyuubi and nothing more. They think that the forth turned his own son INTO the Kyuubi, and while they thank their hero for such a sacrifice; they still see Naruto as nothing more than a monster. There are even some extremists who believe that the Kyuubi has manipulated the Sandaime into believing that Naruto was his successor's son and that they are all doomed because the Kyuubi now has control of the Hokage.

The ninja academy and all civilian public schools teach the truth of course, so there is great distrust between many children and their bigoted parents, or in some cases, between brainwashed kids and their teachers. There is also a noticeable rift between the people. The people who hate Naruto and the people who don't can't seem to get along, and it's getting to the point where there are fights on the streets that started over the boy. Hell, there was even one full out brawl in the middle of town square where a group of people who were protesting the reign of the Hokage, saying that he was a demon lover and that he needed to be removed from office, got the crap beaten out of them by a horde of people (including an off duty ANBU squad) who honor Naruto as a hero and are smart enough to respect one of the greatest leaders in the history of the elemental nations, Sarutobi Hiruzen.

Of course Naruto is unaware of any of that, he's living in his tower, content to train and play with his friends when they come over, training vigorously to get strong enough to kill Madara Uchiha when they are at home.

Naruto ran up to Kiba and went to punch him, Kiba blocked and countered with a punch to the temple, resulting in Naruto disappearing in a puff of smoke yet again. Before Kiba could even scream in anger, the real Naruto came up behind him and kicked him in the head. He then sat on Kiba's back with a blunted Kunai to his neck.

"I win." Naruto said in an overly cocky tone, this being the sixth time today that he had won against his friend.

"No fair, there's too many of you to beat. Mom, when am I gonna get a ninja dog to help me beat Naruto?"

"When you're older, now stop whining. You lost because you lost, don't be a baby about it, just get stronger!"

"Yes mom." Kiba said like a scared little puppy. He was honestly afraid of his mother, as she could be quite scary at times.

"Well, I see you've been having fun." Came a voice from the door.

"Kakashi!" Naruto screamed as he ran up to the silver haired cyclops and hugged him. Kakashi has so far been in charge of most of Naruto's training.

"Are you gonna teach me some awesome jutsu today Kakashi sensei?" Screamed the overly exited blond five year old.

"Perhaps… depends on your definition of awesome Naruto-kun. Today I'm going to teach you a really cool chakra control exercise."

"What! Not more chakra control! Come on, I can walk on walls, how much more control could I need?"

" (sigh) Look Naruto, the more chakra you have, the more important chakra control becomes. You are only five, yet you have more chakra then I do. For you, nothing could be more important then chakra control. Besides, I think you're going to like this one even more then when you learned to walk on walls."

"We'll get out of you hair, have fun Naruto, and Kakashi, don't push him too hard." Tsume announced as she led Kiba out of the room.

"By Kiba, by Tsume sensei!"

"See you Naruto, next time I'll kick your butt for sure!" Kiba yelled as the massive door shut.

"Okay, let's get this over with Kakashi sensei."

"Don't sound so down Naruto, I'm going to teach you how to walk on water. That should be cool, no? But just in case you're disappointed, if you do well enough on this exorcise I'll teach you a really cool jutsu that your father invented." Kakashi said with an eye smile as he pulls a scroll from his vest.

"Really, then what are we waiting for! But wait, how am I supposed to learn how to walk on water without any water? This place doesn't have a pool, I've checked." Naruto asked with a confused look on his face.

"That's what this scroll is for, now stand back." Kakashi said as Naruto took a step back and Kakashi bit his thumb and swiped some of his blood on the scroll. Instantly water began to poor from the scroll like magic, all of it spilling out onto the floor and quickly filling the room with water up to Naruto's knees. "Okay Naruto, now that we have water, you're going to try to walk on it, like so." Here Kakashi lifts his leg up and steps onto the water, only raising himself a few inches, but to Naruto it was simply amazing that someone was standing on water. "This exercise is similar to walking on walls, but considerably harder. So, let's begin…"

XXXXXXXXXXXX  
Hokage's office  
XXXXXXXXXXXX

Sarutobi was not having a good day. It should have been a good day, but it was ruined, like so many good days, by the idiots that run the civilian council and his oh so trusted adviser, Danzo. He had called a council meeting to inform everyone that the Raikage died recently, and the new Raikage wanted to make peace with Konoha and try to make up for some of his predecessor's actions. This is good news, of course, and should have made Sarutobi's day. It almost did make his day, but then he made that stupid fucking mistake, yet again. What mistake, you might ask? Why, being nice of course!

After the good news was delivered and the meeting was over, Sarutobi could have just said 'this meeting is adjourned, now leave me alone', but noooooo, he had to be nice and ask 'does anyone else have anything they'd like to say?', and of course they had something to say!

First, Danzo brought up the fact that Naruto was being trained in the forest of death, and all but demanded that he be allowed to personally train the boy. Sarutobi, being an intelligent human being, decided that it was clearly against Konoha's best interests to have a shinobi with Naruto's potential turned into an emotionless killing machine that will most likely lose it and kill everyone just for fun, and told Danzo flat out that his request is denied and if he ever brings it up again he will personally kick his crippled ass so hard that he will never be able to sit down again.

But that wasn't enough, no, the flood gates were opened, somebody mentioned Naruto, and when that happens, Sarutobi is guaranteed to receive a pulsing headache, just like the one he's feeling now. A little over half of the civilian council still harbor hatred for Naruto, and one of these bigoted morons felt it was necessary to express their distaste of the idea of a 'demon' being given such special treatment and training. It snowballed out of control after that.

Tsume tried to tear the moron's throat out, and it took Hiashi, Shikaku Nara, and Sarutobi himself to hold her down. The room then erupted into one big argument, where everybody was screaming at everybody. Only Shibi Aburame, Fugaku Uchiha, and the three who were busy restraining Tsume weren't yelling at the top of their lungs.

That's when the shit really hit the fan. During all the yelling, someone called for Naruto's death. The killing intent that Tsume gave off after that silenced the room. It didn't help that it was being assisted by the extra killing intent of Hiashi, and Sarutobi, which was not good for the idiot, as they were the ones holding Tsume down. Shikaku's shadow alone wasn't enough to hold down a pissed off Tsume Inuzuka, and she actually DID tear his throat out.

With her teeth!

Now, because she's the head of the Inuzuka clan, and because the Hokage and several of the clan heads felt that the guy deserved it, Tsume is probably not going to be punished too severely, despite the fact that she killed someone in the most vicious fashion ever seen inside Konoha's walls, in a room FULL of high powered witnesses. Still though, it was going to give him one hell of a headache, and Tsume might not be able to leave her house for a while.

'Oh shit.' Sarutobi realized with a start. 'Tsume's going to be busy dealing with the shit storm for a while, I need to send Kakashi out on that mission, Akio is going on a trip to some of the other towns in fire country to try and expand Ichiraku's ramen to more locations, Jin promised Tenten he would take her camping, Hiashi is busy as always, and I'm WAY too busy. For all of next week there is nobody available to watch Naruto. I wish Asuma wasn't still with the fire daimyo, I could easily trust him. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to find a chunin who I know I can trust.'

Confident that a trustworthy ninja was capable of babysitting a five year old, Sarutobi got back to work. It would only be a week. What's the worst that could happen?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
Back at the tower  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kakashi was standing on water, leaning up against the wall reading his book, which he was having difficulty concentrating on due to the twenty or so blond five year olds screaming in frustration while they splash into the shallow water over and over again, when he suddenly looked up and said, in the laziest voice imaginable

"Alright Naruto, it's been five hours, dispel your clones and see how far you've gotten."

A series of pops and a lot of smoke later, and we see a small child half standing, half sinking into the shallow water that surrounds him. A wobble and a scream later, and Naruto falls on his ass.

"Damn it! Why can't I do this!"

"Relax Naruto. It's only been a day. I would've been very surprised if you had gotten it already."

That didn't seem to make Naruto any happier, but he stopped screaming, so Kakashi called it a win and pulled out his scroll to seal all the water back up. As the water drained magically into the paper, Naruto looking on in amazement, Kakashi was dealing with an internal dilemma.

'Is it really a good idea? I mean, I know there's nothing else that could teach Naruto shape manipulation so completely, but he's only five. Is he really ready to hold that kind of power?' As Kakashi thought this, Naruto slipped in the water on the floor and fell on his ass, screaming at the water for making him fall. 'No, he's not. But what choice do I have? Normal chakra control exorcises don't do enough, and unless Naruto learns to control his chakra completely, Kyuubi's chakra would kill him. He needs to master that power, we can't keep him in this tower forever, and the spies say that a faction of ninjas in Iwa want to conquer Konoha before a new flash can be trained. They think that Naruto might end up being the end of their country one day. As irresponsible as it might seem, I have to teach a five year old the Rasengan.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
One Week Later, Hokage Tower  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I'm sorry to ask this of you in your current health, Hayate-san, but you are the best man for the job." Apologized Sarutobi from behind his desk. Gekko Hayate is a sixteen year old chunin of average height, with brown hair, average eyes, and a sword strapped to his back. He also has a strong friendship with the man who made him his sword, Tamura Jin, and is a strong supporter of Naruto. The perfect choice for an impromptu caretaker for the boy.

"Thank you for the concern,(cough) Hokage-sama (cough) but it's just a cough, really. (cough) I'm fine."

"I'm glad to hear that. Now, when you arrive at the tower you should find Chie Haruno and her daughter, Sakura. Give them this scroll, it's the kind we use in the chunin exams. That should bring them home without them having to brave the forest."

"Yes, Hokage-sama (cough)" And with that, the sick chunin takes the scroll from his leader and walks out the door, never suspecting for a minute that his little 'cough' could be at all dangerous…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
Outside, two minutes later  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(cough-cough-cough)

'Oh man, maybe I shouldn't be taking care of a kid after all. Though Jin says he can't get sick…'

"Hey Hayate, how's it goin'?" Said a jovial voice to his left. Hayate turned and was met with the smiling face of Nozomu Sasaki **(2)**, his teammate from back in his genin days. He was an average looking chunin of about the same height as Hayate with brown spiky hair and dark brown eyes.

"Hey Nozomu. I'm good, just got a bit of a cough. (cough) Damn thing won't go away. (cough-cough)"

"Not too sick to share a drink with an old buddy, I hope?"

Hayate looked up. He never did wear a watch, he had been taught at age eight how to tell the time from the sun, and there was no way in hell that he was going to waste his money on a device that does something he's perfectly capable of doing himself.

"I do have a mission, but I guess I have ten minutes to spare."

"Excellent! There's a place right down the road. Follow me…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
Twenty minutes later, The Rusty Kunai  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Ahahahahaha! I had forgotten about that! Oh man, she was _so_ pissed after that. You remember what she did to Iikagen sensei?" **(3)**

"Yeah, she-" Hayate froze. He had glanced at Nozomu's watch and noticed that he had, yet again, allowed himself to lose track of time. 'Damn it, every single time…' "Sorry man (cough), I've really got to get going. (cough) My mission-"

"Don't worry about it, I getcha. But hey," He raises his glass "to old times, eh?"

"Yeah, to old times…" they raise the glasses to their lips, but just before he can take a sip- (cough-cough-cough-cough. COUGH-COUGH-COUGH)

"What's the matter, got the wrong pipe?" And he gave his friend a healthy pat on the back…

The reaction was immediate. Hayate gave a great, terribly wet cough that showered his fist with blood. The patrons of the bar all turned their heads at the diseased sound, Nozomu flinched in fear at having possibly hurt his friend, and the bartender rushed over to protect the highly polished surface of his bar from blood stains, all the while Hayate continued to hack out blood, stopping only briefly to wipe strings of bloody drool from his mouth.

An off duty medic squad was in a booth by the window, and before they dragged him off to the hospital, managed to get Hayate coherent enough to give his mission to his oldest and most trusted friend.

As Nozomu left the bar, vest and pant leg spattered with his friend's blood, he thought of his parents, crushed by the Kyuubi only five short years ago…

XXXXXXXXX  
A the tower  
XXXXXXXXX

"Stop it!"

"Stop it!"

"Oh come on!"

"Oh come on!"

"I mean it Naruto!"

"I mean it Naruto!"

"That's it!"

"That's- ACK! Help! I can't breathe!"

"Can't you two get along! I swear… Oh, hello! I'm Mrs. Haruno." Nozomu had just walked into the fighting arena in tower 44, which is the official name of Minato Namikaze's infamous tower in the forest of death. "Um… excuse me, but who are you? I was told to expect Hayate-san…"

He couldn't BELIEVE he was here, what was he thinking? After all those meetings with the others, all those attempts to get shop owners to stop selling stuff to him, all those mobs he had joined to try and kill the beast, he had agreed to babysit the damn thing!

"Um… can you hear me?"

He could see them, his parents, crushed into paste on the dirt, completely broken and unrecognizable. They hadn't just been killed, they had been DESTROYED! They were destroyed by that demon! AND LOOK AT HIM LAUGH!

"Excuse me… Who are you?"

He could kill it… by the time anyone found the body he could be buying a house in rice country.

"Sakura, come here, stay by mommy."

His parents had left him some money, he had been saving for a while… He could just send the pink bitches home nice and politely, kill the demon, and be gone before anyone figures out what happened.

"I'm sorry, but I think it would be best if you went back to Hokage-sama and told him that I can stay for a night. Okay? So please, just… just go."

Now that he had decided to take some action, Nozomu realized that he had been staring at Naruto with hate in his eyes for at least a full minute. It probably looked pretty suspicious, since the freakin' pink chick noticed him. Oh well, if she wants to protect the demon, she can die with him. He pulls out a kunai…

"Mommy I'm scared."

Oh… he had forgotten about the little one. He doesn't really have to kill her; he could just leave her here. But what if she left the tower? Killing her here would be less cruel than leaving her to the forest. But could he really kill her? She's so young…

"I'll give you one chance. Take the girl and get out of here. Now."

Chie froze for a minute, stuck between needing to protect her daughter and not wanting to leave Naruto alone with this man. She looked over at the boy, and saw that he was staring in horror at Nozomu, probably reliving some of his worst memories. How could she just leave him here looking like that?

She should've decided faster.

"Fine, then. You care about that demon? YOU CAN JUST DIE WITH IT!"

Taking her silence as an answer, Nozomu lunged at the woman, wanting to savor the demon's death. He would save him for last… and then he would take his time.

Chie wrapped her arms around her daughter, waiting for death and hoping that Sakura would survive somehow.

"NO!" Naruto charged at Nozomu, blunted kunai in hand. He didn't know what good it would do, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let this bastard hurt one of his only friends! As he got closer, he jumped at his target, raising his training weapon in a futile attempt to stab him.

'Stupid brat.' Nozomu simply grabbed his throat mid leap, stabbed him in the shoulder, let go, spun around, and threw him off his knife towards the pink haired females. After the instant when Nozomu wasn't looking at anyone, Naruto was already charging for a second time, screaming like a wild animal.

"Stop! Please stop it!" Sakura was following him, crying, her mother huddled over by the wall…

"Just give up already!" He went to smack the little demon away, and realized it half a second too late…

Naruto wasn't bleeding… Sakura was.

(Poof) As he hit him, both Naruto and Sakura, now right behind him, burst into smoke. Through both clouds, covered in his own blood, his eyes the blazing red of an angry demon, came Naruto, clutching in his hand a spiraling sphere of raging death.

"RASENGAN!"

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHG!" The pain was unimaginable as the angry blue sphere tore through his chest. Each bit of flesh and bone was ripped in every direction at once, he could feel his ribs shatter, the shards tearing through half his organs while his heart was blended into pulp. Blood, all of his blood, exploded all over the five year old before him, making him look every bit the demon he thought he was. And it was that face, covered in blood, his eyes blue again and popping out in horror, that made him realize, in his very last second on earth, that he had been wrong. He had caused this, he had forced this boy to kill him. He was the demon…

"AEEEEEEEEEEEH!" Sakura had wiggled out of her mother's grasp to see if Naruto was alright. What she saw would change her forever.

(BANG!)

Just then, the gigantic double doors burst open, slamming against the wall like a pair of freight trains. Sarutobi Hiruzen charged into the room, a great black and gold staff held in his hands.

"Get away from them you-!" He froze. Sarutobi Hiruzen, the man who had fought in three wars and had killed more people than anyone in history looked at Naruto and _froze._ "N-Naruto?"

The boy turned, blood dripping from his face as he did, took one look at his grandfather figure, and burst into tears.

They were the last tears he would ever shed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX  
To be continued  
XXXXXXXXXXXXX

**(1)** Sakura means cherry blossoms and Haruno means blooming fields. Yes, Sakura's name actually means 'a blooming field of cherry blossoms'.

**(2)** Nozomu Sasaki is the voice actor for Gekko Hayate.

**(3) **Iikagen literally means 'random'. I couldn't think of a good name or connect this character to anyone important other than Hayate…


	4. The Rise of a God

Chapter 4: The Rise of a God

Disclaimer: I don't own a god damn thing

  
Forest of death, Namikaze tower, seven years later  


(!BANG!)

"AAAAHOLY SHIT!" Akio Haruno sprang to life, leaping off the king size bed he had been sleeping on, knocking over an expensive looking nightstand, and startling the hell out of his wife, who had somehow managed to sleep through the tremendous explosion _and_ the quaking of the entire tower, but not her husband's scream. "What the hell was that?"

"Well, if I had to guess I'd say that boy is screwing with the laws of physics again. Now stop screaming and go make sure he doesn't kill himself."

Akio watched his disgruntled wife roll over and get comfortable again before forcing himself to get up and see what Naruto managed to blow up this time. Naruto had been busy over the past seven years. After the incident with the traitorous chunin, Naruto poured himself into his training, especially in regards to his father's work in Fuinjutsu.

One day he showed one of his 'projects' to his grandfather figure, Sarutobi, and his immediate response was to register Naruto as a Shinobi and put him to work in the research and development department. For whatever reason, Naruto's most recent project kept causing massive explosions, which Akio wouldn't mind too much, except that his daughter Sakura likes to train with Naruto and sometimes ends up collapsing before they have a chance to leave, which leads to a night spent inside Namikaze tower and, inevitably, explosive awakenings at six in the morning.

Akio finished getting dressed and started making his way towards the vault, where Naruto does most of his research. On the way, he bumped into an attractive purple haired young woman in a tan trench coat, a mesh bodysuit and an orange miniskirt.

"Hey Anko, going to see what Naruto blew up?"

"Nah, I don't even want to know at this point. I'm just getting up 'cause I've got a mission today. And it's out of the village! Woohoo! I'm free from that crazy little brat! Maybe it'll be a long one. I might even get to kill somebody!" And with that, the slightly psychotic woman walked away, whistling to the thought of future carnage.

After the incident seven years ago, Sarutobi decided that Naruto needed a more permanent guardian and Anko was just the right amount of crazy for Naruto to be able to relate to her. Of course, being Naruto's guardian meant that she was usually stuck in the tower. She had mostly been working with the torture and interrogation department, which allowed her to work while staying in the village, but Anko hated being grounded, and as a tokubetsu jonin specializing in assassination, she felt like her talents were being wasted. So, as Naruto grew older and more powerful, she began to outright demand more and more missions outside the village, and was extremely happy every time she got one.

Shaking his head, Akio continued on his way towards the basement, passing his daughter on the way.

"Good morning Sak-"

"Ehhhh"

"Would you like some breakfast-"

"EHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"(Sigh)"

Oh the woes of raising teenage warriors…

Akio just kept walking, reaching the secret entrance and making his way down the stairs. When he reached his destination, the first thing he noticed was that the door to the lab was blown off. The lab is a room off to the side of the vault that Naruto added a few years ago. The room is built to be indestructible, that way Naruto could play with the laws of physics without risking the various books and scrolls in the vault, which are only protected by high powered Fuinjutsu and glass, which in the face of _Naruto's_ high powered Fuinjutsu, might as well just be glass. He still trained in the vault of course, and all finished products were stored there to keep them safe. The lab was just a safe place to make a mess.

Walking through the now empty door frame, Akio sighed at the sight of several dozen Narutos gathered around a charred metal table that was actually melting in several places, completely calm and discussing whatever just happened as if it was your average science experiment.

"Maybe we could just add the stabilizer separately, that way it doesn't blend in with all the complicated stuff and we can focus on strengthening it on its own."

"No, the stabilizer is fine, the problem is we put it in the wrong place…"

"Oh come on, we've moved it around like seven times now, it's obviously not doing enough to keep the blended chakra from exploding like it wants to. We need to improve it before we end up needing another new table."

"Okay wait, what if we just keep the chakra separated until it's done converting, then just blend it and let it explode?"

"That wouldn't allow anyone to utilize the chakra though. You could make a bomb, but that isn't all we wanted to accomplish here…"

Not knowing what the hell they were talking about and being really annoyed that he was woken up by an explosion, Akio decided it was time to interrupt.

"Oi! What the hell Naruto? Why can't you blow things up at a reasonable hour?"

"Oh, sorry about that. I couldn't let myself sleep, so I had to keep myself busy and I figured, while I'm awake, I might as well make some real progress on this. The old man really had high hopes that I could complete it… Hehehe, sorry."

"(Sigh) And why, exactly, could you not allow yourself to sleep?"

"Oh, that's another project I'm working on. Speaking of which, the original is in the vault."

The clone tossed him a bloody three pronged kunai and they all resumed their conversation about what went wrong. Akio left the lab and opened the vault door with the kunai, tapping his foot impatiently as the giant door took its time opening. When he could finally enter, he saw Naruto sitting in a lotus position on the floor with a scroll wrapped around his head.

"Damn, no progress."

"What the hell were you doing in here that made you stay up all night and blow up the lab while everyone was sleeping?"

"Oh, this thing." He said as he started to unwrap the scroll from his head. "I've finally managed to isolate and measure the chakra effects in the brain while a person sleeps, so now I'm trying to make a seal that does the same thing faster. If it works, a person could experience an entire night's sleep in a few minutes!"

"Well stop messing with the laws of nature and get ready. A hawk delivered this last night; the Hokage wants to see you today."

He tossed a small scroll at the young madman and started to walk away.

"An official order… That's unusual; I usually get a friendly invitation."

"And take us home! Sakura has academy today!"

Naruto just smirked, amused at having so thoroughly annoyed somebody who really can't do anything about it. For a moment he mused that he might be turning into an asshole, then he stopped caring and headed up to one of the many bathrooms.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX  
A half hour later  
XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto exited the bathroom wearing his custom made battle suit, which consists of black steel toed combat boots, a pair of black shinobi pants that was almost literally covered in pockets, a belt that held three weapon pouches and a katana, all of which was black, including the sheath, handle, and even the hand guard of the sword, a mesh shirt made of black, chakra absorbing metal, a black trench coat with a blood red flame pattern licking the bottom and both sleeves, and black fingerless gloves with black chakra absorbing metal plates on the back of the fists.

Naruto believes in the power of dark clothing, but he believes even more in the power of chakra absorbing metal. Chakra absorbing metal is extremely rare and expensive as hell, but over the years Naruto has made literally tons of money. What I mean by that is, if you were to take all of Naruto's earnings over the last seven years, in the form of the largest paper bills possible, and stack it, you'd have several tons of paper. He has spent most of that money buying over half of the chakra absorbing metal mined in iron country over the course of three years. This was enough chakra absorbing metal to make one thousand kunai, one thousand shuriken, fifteen fuuma shuriken, five katanas, five sets of the various metal clothing he's currently wearing, and a few other things with the leftover metal. Three fifths of all of that are currently on him, through the use of sealing scrolls.

The over prepared shinobi headed towards the cafeteria, where he assumed people would either be eating breakfast or waiting for him to make that assumption and bring them all home when he found them there with no food to be had. He entered the large dining hall and was slightly disappointed to discover that his latter guess was true. Without a word, all three Harunos grabbed a hold of one of Naruto's arms. He sighed, and then clapped his hands together. There was a flash, and they were all gone.

XXXXXXXXXXX  
Haruno home  
XXXXXXXXXXX

With a yellow flash, the group appeared on the front lawn of a ridiculously oversized house that was just a few rooms short of being a mansion. The tired family let go of their favorite nut job and walked into their home, grumbling tiredly the whole way.

"See you later everybody!"

"EHHHHH!"

Was the collective answer as they all disappeared into their home. Naruto smirked, put his hand behind his head, and began to fall backwards as though there was a chair beneath him.

_Flash_

XXXXXXXXXXXX  
Hokage's office  
XXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto fell into a chair in front of the Hokage's desk. The old man didn't even look up as a young boy just fell out of thin air right in front of him, he just kept doing his paperwork.

"One day there's going to be somebody sitting in that chair when you do that."

"Yeah, and that'll be hilarious, I'm sure. So why the official summons? I gave you my project report last week."

Now he looked up, and his expression told Naruto that this was indeed official business.

"I've been thinking about the progress you've made in your training… I think it's time to give you a real mission, and there just so happens to be one that requires your specific expertise."

"I see…"

Now Naruto was serious. Ninjas often have a subtle way of talking, but Sarutobi was the god of Shinobi, his speech was so subtle that you really have to know him to understand the full meaning of what he says. If he had said that the mission required Naruto's expertise, it would have meant Fuinjutsu, but when he said _specific_ expertise, Naruto knew that he meant it had something to do with the Bijuu.

"I see you understand the severity of what I'm thinking. If so, you'll understand when I say that this is above your current pay grade. I need a Jonin for this, not a genin that has never completed a single mission."

"You want to make me a Jonin? Is that even allowed?"

"Normally you have to have been a chunin for a certain number of successful missions before you can even qualify to take the Jonin exam. However, I am the Hokage, when it comes to my ninjas, I can do whatever I want. I'll be giving you a skill test today, be at the arena in an hour to begin."

"Who will I be fighting?"

"It's a surprise, but don't worry, you'll find it a challenging battle, I promise."

"Alright then, I guess I'll eat breakfast. I already haven't slept at all, I wouldn't want another disadvantage."

"That reminds me, how is that little project coming along?"

"…No progress"

_Flash_

"Oh well, guess it can wait."

And with that, the old man went back to his paperwork.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
Konoha arena, one hour later  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto entered the arena only to discover that his opponent wasn't there, it was just Sarutobi standing calmly in his robe, smoking his pipe.

"So where's my opponent? Is it Kakashi being late again, or is it that old lady up there?"

Naruto pointed up to the seat the Hokage would normally sit in during the chunin exams where an old woman was currently sitting.

"That is Masako Katsuki **(1)**, head of Konoha hospital and best medic ninja in Konoha, unless you want to count Tsunade even though she isn't here. She is here to heal any injuries sustained during this test. As for your opponent, I've already told you, _I _will be giving you a skill test."

With that the old man took off his hat, threw his pipe inside of it, tore his cloak off and stuffed that in the hat as well. Now in his retro ninja battle suit with his signature scarf that most would call way too freakin' long, he tossed the hat off into the stands and got into his fighting stance. Naruto just stood there for a minute, then he closed his eyes and smirked.

"I see. Well, I suppose if that's the case…" He opened his eyes to reveal that they had changed. The blue orbs that had once occupied his head had been replaced with pure white balls that were covered in kanji **(2)**. "…I'll have to use this."

"The Fuingan (Sealing eye)… A series of Fuinjutsu burned directly into your eyes, your skull, and even your spinal column. It connects to your central nervous system, purifying all chakra in your body and converting it into your own, making you immune to Genjutsu. It connects to your visual cortex; allowing you to see chakra and speeding up your brain's ability to register visual information, making time appear to slow down. It connects to the memory and motor cortexes, allowing you to memorize and copy any movement you observe. It even has the ability to project chakra at whatever you're looking at, allowing you to use Genjutsu simply by making eye contact. It is the Sharingan recreated through Fuinjutsu, and the reason I placed an eight year old in the research and development department. It's certainly impressive, but do you think it's enough to defeat _me_?"

"Only one way to find out…"

…

"Begin!"

Naruto immediately threw a kunai, while Sarutobi was already almost done with a string of hand seals.

"**Fuuton: Daitoppa! (Wind style: Great breakthrough)**"

The wind blast deflected the Kunai completely, never allowing it to get too close. Sarutobi knew the inner workings of Naruto's **Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying thunder god Technique)**, and wasn't going to let Naruto beat him with it too easily. Basically, the Hiraishin works like this. Unlike his father's version where you summon yourself to a Hiraishin tag, Naruto's technique allows the user to summon any object with a Hiraishin tag on it anywhere within ten feet of any other Hiraishin tag. But it doesn't allow you to bring anything with you that doesn't have one, which means all weapons, cloths, and even people you wish to teleport must have the Hiraishin seal tattooed on them somewhere.

The Haruno family has been fully outfitted for Hiraishin use, but the seal itself won't activate unless your chakra contains the healing abilities of the Uzumaki clan. So even though Sakura is a ninja with the Hiraishin tag tattooed onto her, she still can't activate it, and neither can anyone else until Naruto has children.

The wind had kicked up a cloud of dust, and in those few moments Sarutobi had disappeared. But Naruto could see him with his chakra vision, and knew he was underground. Just as he could see the man sized ball of chakra directly underneath him, Naruto made his move.

"**Doton: Yomi Numa (Earth style: Swamp of the Underworld)**"

The swamp Naruto created spanned an area of about twenty yards, and severely slowed Sarutobi's movement underground. But Naruto didn't stop, he shifted to another set of hand seals so fast you'd think he had never stopped to execute the first one.

"**Ninpo: Jutsu Kaishin (Ninja art: Technique Conversion)**"

After slamming his hands back into his swamp, all of the chakra Naruto had just imbued into the dirt was converted instantly to fire type chakra, turning the swamp into a superheated sand pit that was also on fire. Naruto flashed away to the kunai he threw away earlier to avoid the flames, meanwhile Sarutobi popped out of the ground a good forty yards away from Naruto's fire pit.

"How did you know I had sent a clone? Surly you weren't just trying to kill me?"

"You give my eyes too little credit. I didn't simply copy the Sharingan when I made this, I spent a good four months researching the Byakugan so I could learn how it is they can see chakra so vividly, even through solid objects. Simply put, I could see you. I can even see your tenketsu, though I don't have the skill necessary to close them like a Hyuuga can."

"I see. Well, I'm even more impressed than I expected to be. However…" Quick as lightning, Sarutobi tossed a barrage of shuriken at Naruto and performed another set of hand seals. "**Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique)**"

The small barrage of pointy weapons turned into a bladed hail of death that Naruto had no hope of dodging without resorting to Hiraisining outside of the arena, which he was pretty sure wouldn't be allowed. So instead he clapped his hands together and thrust them forward.

"**Fuuton: Reppuusho (Wind style: Gale palm)**"

All of the Shuriken were deflected backwards by a sudden blast of wind, rushing back at their original thrower even faster than they were originally. Not exactly expecting it, Sarutobi hastily preformed his favorite defensive jutsu.

"**Doton: Doryuuheki (Earth style: Earth-style wall)**"

A large earth wall sprang up from the dirt, protecting Sarutobi from harm. But upon hearing some of the blades cluck against his wall just a second too late to have been his shuriken, he instantly realized his mistake.

_Flash_

Naruto was suddenly right behind him, going for a backhand strike to the shoulder blade. But there was a twist. Naruto's fist plate was glowing red hot, revealing that the Hiraishin seal had been etched directly into the metal. If he got hit with that, a negative of the Hiraishin seal would be branded onto his skin, and Naruto was doing a series of one handed seals, clearly intending to imbue the seal with his chakra so that it could be used.

Sarutobi just barely managed to spin around fast enough to catch his arm, but Naruto started to glow.

"Shit!"

He jumped away but it was too late, Naruto exploded, sending the old man flying back over a hundred yards, where another Naruto burst out from the ground with a Rasengan in his hand.

"Rasenga-" (poof)

Sarutobi tossed a kunai at the clone at the last second, allowing him to skid to a halt and find Naruto, who was over by the earth wall, lazily collecting his Kunai like the cocky brat he is.

"Well, it certainly looks like I won't be able to go easy on you. However…" He did a set of life threatening hand seals and slammed his hands on the ground. "**Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)**" In a poof of smoke, the legendary monkey king Enma arrived. "That doesn't mean you get to be cocky just yet."

"Heh" Naruto smirked, pulling one last kunai out of the wall.

"Enma, Staff!"

"You got it!"

Sarutobi grabbed the giant black and gold adamantine staff Enma had transformed into and charge Naruto head on. Naruto Rushed ahead to meet him, his hand poised to draw his sword at any moment. Seemingly too early, Naruto drew his sword and let go of it, allowing it to fly at Sarutobi's face. Just as he blocked the sword with his staff, Naruto flashed behind him, going for another red hot backhand loaded with deadly Hiraishin. Sarutobi expected it this time, and dropped into a sweep kick instantly.

Naruto flashed away before it connected, only to reappear behind him again and grab his sword, which was doing its best to fly through the air but was still close enough for Naruto to attempt a downward slash. Enma transformed back into an ape in time to catch Naruto's wrist, blocking the strike and holding him still. Sarutobi capitalized on this by throwing three kunai under Enma's arm, trying to hit Naruto.

To both of their surprise, however, Naruto just flashed away again, leaving his sword behind and appearing just a few feet away, where he performed a sideways slash despite not having his weapon in his hand. Mid swing, his sword reappeared in his hand, and would have severely damaged Enma had he not quickly turned back into the adamantine staff. Naruto followed through with his slash, batting Enma out of Sarutobi's reach. But Sarutobi was already done with his jutsu, and was only waiting for Enma to be out of the way.

"**Katon: Karyuu Endan (Fire style: Fire dragon Flame missile)**"

At point blank range, avoiding the white hot flame dragon seemed impossible. There was a flash, but Naruto didn't seem to move. When the dragon hit him, however, Naruto disappeared completely, revealing him to be a clone.

'He substituted using the Hiraishin? How! Simultaneous teleportation isn't possible with that jutsu! Unless…'

Sarutobi jumped away just in time as two Narutos burst forth from the ground, both spinning with their fists out, hoping to hit Sarutobi with the Hiraishin plate in each of his shoulder blades.

'He always goes for the shoulder blades. Why is that? Unless of course… No, he wouldn't.'

"Naruto you cruel little brat! You've optimized that branding jutsu for combat use, haven't you?"

"That's right," The Naruto on the left replied. "I've been trying to burn this seal right into your bone the whole time."

"You're such a wicked child. But you're not going to get me with such a barbaric technique."

"We'll see old man, we'll see…"

The Naruto on the right charged forward, sword in hand. But Sarutobi wasn't going to let this one get close. Grabbing Enma, he tossed the adamantine staff at the oncoming Naruto like a giant blunt senbon. The Naruto dodged it, only for Enma to change back into an ape and grab Naruto by the ankle. Naruto tripped, but caught himself with his hands and went to kick Enma in the face. Enma noticed that spikes had popped out of the outer rim of Naruto's boot midway through the kick, and that they were chakra absorbing metal covered in wind chakra.

'Doesn't this boy have _any_ non-lethal moves?'

Were the thoughts of the ape clone right before it exploded, taking the Naruto Clone with him.

Covered by the dust, both Ninjas went through their own set of hand seals.

"**Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire style: Great fire ball Technique)**"

Sarutobi's fireball was larger and deadlier than anything Naruto had ever seen before, and since it was one of Kakashi's favorite techniques, that's saying something. Even so, Naruto wasn't intimidated, he calmly completed his own technique.

"**Nenton: Kondan no Jutsu (Combustion style: Chaotic projectile Technique)**"

Naruto spat out a small, lightning fast ball of deadly looking chakra that sped forth to meet the giant ball of fire confidently. The two techniques collided, and there was a tremendous explosion that knocked both warriors back just as Enma's hand reached out of the ground to grab Naruto's ankle.

'He's already using his sub element, wind plus fire, I'd better be careful.'

Skidding to a halt, both warriors quickly tossed kunai at each other, Naruto to get closer, Sarutobi just to deflect Naruto's. But when the two weapons collided, Naruto's turned into another Naruto clone, grabbing Enma's slightly burnt hand and ripping him out of the ground.

'He shouldn't be strong enough to do that… Wait, what is that!'

Naruto's face and even his fingers were covered in glowing kanji, and Sarutobi realized that Naruto had branded a seal over his entire body that would improve his physical abilities. Enma flinched slightly but then started the Taijutsu match he knew was coming by kicking out at Naruto's gut. Now empowered by Fuinjutsu, Naruto was too fast for the old monkey, and grabbed his foot, doing a spin and tossing him all the way back to the earth wall from earlier. Enma was about to control his landing, but then got too close to the wall…

_Flash_

Naruto had evidently left one kunai stuck in the wall as a surprise, as he appeared right in front of Enma, kneeing him in the face and stopping his forward momentum. In that moment, the real Naruto flashed behind him, backhanding him in the shoulder blade.

"**Kinpo: Naraku Soutei (Forbidden art: Hell Binding)**"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Enma screamed in agony as the Hiraishin seal, the _negative_ of the Hiraishin seal, was burned into his shoulder blade, right into the bone… Except that it wasn't Enma, Sarutobi had performed the replacement technique at the last moment in order to spare his longtime companion any permanent harm, figuring that the nearly immortal summon would have to live with the scar a lot longer than he would. Sarutobi fell down and began to writhe in agony, screaming bloody murder at Naruto for causing him so much pain.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU YOU LITTLE FUCKER! YOU WILL REGRET THIS I PROMISE YOU! I WILL TEAR YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF AND FEED THEM TO YOU!"

Naruto's response was "Hmmm. I'm impressed you're still awake. All my test subjects passed out immediately from the pain."

Sarutobi stayed conscious long enough to see Masako jump down from the balcony and rush over to him, then allowed himself to succumb to his agony. His last conscious thought was 'I hate that boy… But he definitely made Jonin.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXX  
To be continued  
XXXXXXXXXXXXX

**(1)** Masako Katsuki is the voice actress for Tsunade

**(2)** Imagine something similar to that circle of kanji that appears when people use the summoning jutsu, except in his eyes.

And I'm back! I know I've been gone a long time and that I left for unfavorable reasons, so I'm not going to waste time giving you excuses you don't want to hear. I've finally ended the prologue and started the action! Tell me how I did with the fight scene, I've never written one before. Other than that, just tell me what you think, threaten me with death, I don't care so long as you REVIEW!


	5. No holding back

No Holding Back

Hello readers! I'm actually updating… Again! It's like a miracle. Anyway, I decided to post this despite how short it is, since with my college work and the fact that I really want to be as lazy as possible during my upcoming one week off (Spring break bitches! YEAH!) I figured it could be a while before I wrote out everything I had planned for this chapter. So instead I give you this, which I hope you enjoy.

King Cairo- Thanks, I managed to fix that. I looked up all the meanings of Jin (there was a lot of them) and decided that his name now means virtue.

HouseMD93- In the name of those 15 fucks I assure you… I have no valid excuse as to why it took me that long to update. I'm just a terrible person. I don't know what else to say.

Disclaimer: I don't even have the money to own my college text books, and you think I own Naruto? What the hell is wrong with you!

-  
Konoha General Hospital, two hours later  
-

Sarutobi woke up and noticed immediately where he was. He had always hated hospitals, they always brought up bad memories of friends or family dying. But there was something he hated even more than hospitals, and he was sitting right next to him…

"Die you little- AAAARRG!"

Sarutobi leapt up to attack Naruto, but was struck down by one of the most intense pains he had ever felt burning and scraping against his back like a flaming chainsaw.

"Sorry old man, but you probably shouldn't move for a while."

"You little shithead, why did you have to do this to me? And why did you try to do it to Enma, what did he ever do to you?"

"Honestly, I figured you wouldn't let him get hit by such a permanently scarring technique, I was really just trying to hit you. As for why I needed to hit you with it, well… You wouldn't let me apply it normally, and as a shinobi of Konoha, I have to protect my Hokage, right? Now you have the Hiraishin seal on you, just apply some chakra to it and I will appear."

"What the hell kind of excuse is that? What makes you think that I would need your help in battle? I am the Hokage you little twerp, you haven't surpassed me just yet. Remember that that was just a test, I was holding back quite a bit."

"First of all, we both know that I was holding back A LOT of my power as well. Second of all old man, don't you realize that it was you who told me, years ago, that it was the strongest, most confident amongst our forces that sometimes need the most protection? You told me that the day I said I wanted to be Hokage, trying to teach me about the Hokage's job to protect everybody with his life."

"…I hate you so much."

"Aww, that hurts old man, that really hurts."

"Yeah, yeah, sure it does. So, why don't you tell me what that seal was that you used at the end? It was quite impressive. In the beginning of our fight, your physical skills were chunin level at most, but then you used that seal and you were stronger and faster than Enma, who is stronger and much faster than I am."

"I haven't named it yet, since it was just completed, but it basically pumps chakra to your muscles to make you stronger and faster. Well, it's a bit more than that. It takes the chakra not only form your normal stores, but from the excess chakra that all living things excrete at all times, meaning that sensor types can't detect me since my chakra signature is being utilized by the seal. It also has the ability to pull chakra from the celestial gates, which is how I managed to be faster than Enma, not to mention that it hastens the flow of chakra throughout the body, which for an Uzumaki like me, increases the speed and effectiveness of my healing abilities."

"Impressive, but what about when you're not using it, are you still detectable by sensor types then?"

"No, I thought of that already. I didn't even need to solve this one, it solved itself." With that, he pulled off his hiatate to reveal a black diamond shaped gem on his forehead. "I store all the extra chakra in here, just in case."

"Is that Tsunade's **Infuin (Yin seal)**?"

"Yep, and unlike her I don't need to use the **Sozo Saisei (Creation Rebirth)** to heal, my bloodline will take care of it just by flooding my system with chakra."

"You really do think of everything, don't you? You wicked child, what has life done to you?"

"Nothing insanity can't fix."

"…I don't even want to think about what that means. Anyway, Jiraiya! Stop hiding so we can get down to business."

To the surprise of neither party, a large, aging ninja in a bright red coat materialized out of the corner of the room. **(1)**

"Why do you still bother? I taught you that technique, why would it fool me?"

"Just testing your abilities old man, we can't have you getting soft on us now can we."

"Whatever, just tell Naruto about the situation, I don't feel like it right now."

"Right, well as you've no doubt guessed, we have a serious problem that requires certain skills of yours…"

"Has one of the Bijuu gotten loose?"

"…How the hell did you know that?"

"It's just that I'm smarter than you. Don't feel bad, lots of people are smarter than you, it's nothing special."

"God damn you… (sigh) alright, that's enough of that. Here's the deal, there was a rebellion in Kirigakure that ended with the rebels trying to extract the Sanbi from the Mizukage."

"Fools, extracting a Bijuu is even more foolish than trying to catch one if you don't know _exactly_ what you're doing…"

"Yes, well, as you can imagine the Sanbi escaped. According to history, the Sanbi has always been a reclusive beast, and so it ran away rather than fight. It also loves water, and ended up swimming all the way over to the mainland. A border patrol saw it rampaging through a small village on the eastern border of fire country, and last report indicates that it's headed towards Kumo. If Kumo gets their hands on a third Bijuu, they might feel empowered enough to throw some weight around, which would be bad for everyone."

"So you want me to capture it?" Here he smirks so evilly that the old men truly fear whatever it is he's planning. "Consider it done."

"Hold on now, there's something we've got to do first."

"Oh…We? You're going to come watch?"

"You little!… I'm coming because I've been Konoha's greatest seal master for years."

"You mean you used to be Konoha's greatest seal master. Both me and my father have long since surpassed you."

At this, Jiraiya came dangerously close to starting a fight that would level half of Konoha, but one look from his master told him to let it go.

"Naruto, please stop antagonizing your teachers. Jiraiya has had a significant influence in your training. I recall that you used one of his techniques against me in our fight earlier today, so please stop underestimating him."

"Fine, so what is it that we have to do before we go?"

"I'm going to let you sign the toad contract. We won't have time for you to master the art of summoning, but with your chakra reserves you should be able to summon Gamabunta and pass his test. It's an ability that will no doubt come in handy against a Bijuu."

"I don't need the toads to beat a Bijuu, but fine. I'm sure I'll find a use for them eventually."

"You are way too arrogant for your own good, you know that you little brat?"

"Yea, yea. Get over here, I know a large open area we can use."

With that, Naruto grabbed Jiraiya's arm and performed a hand seal.

_Flash_

-  
Somewhere outside the walls of Konoha  
-

_Flash_

"This should be big enough. So where's this scroll I have to sign?"

Jiraiya did not respond to the arrogant little brat, afraid of what he might say. Instead, he performed a set of hand seals and slammed his hands on the ground.

"**Kuchiyose no Jutsu!**"

(Poof)

A large orange toad appeared and spat out a huge scroll, which Jiraiya picked up and threw at Naruto. Naruto caught it with ease and unrolled it, studying the names written on it, especially the last one.

"Just sign your name in blood and place a bloody handprint on the page."

Naruto completed the ritual in silence, and even after he was finished, he just kept standing there, staring at the names…

Jiraiya, being the dense idiot that he is, didn't notice at all. He grabbed up the scroll, rolled it up and sent it back to Mt. Myoboku.

"Alright, now these are the…"

"**Kuchiyose no Jutsu!**"

(poof)

"…Hand seals."

"**Jiraiya! What the hell is it this time?"**

Jiraiya sweatdrops, but before he can answer…

"OI! TOAD MAN! DOWN HERE! I WAS THE ONE WHO SUMMONED YOU!"

"**What? Who the hell are you little boy?"**

'Little boy? Oh hell no.'

"I am Naruto Namikaze, your new summoner! Jiraiya tells me I have to pass a test before you will fight for me, so what is it!"

"**What? Hold on a second, I just got here and I'm expected to do whatever you want? Jiraiya, what the hell is going on here?"**

"I'm sorry bunta, but I'm afraid we're short on time. Naruto already knows that he's been the candidate for the next toad summoner since birth, please test him now."

"**What is it with you summoners? You all have some nerve demanding things of me! But fine, I know that if even Jiraiya is serious, something big must be happening. Alright boy, jump on my back, if you can hold on until the sun begins to set while I try to throw you off, you can be my subordinate."**

"Subordinate huh? So what do I get if I kick your ass?"

(SMACK)

Jiraiya face palmed so hard he almost broke his own nose. This boy is seriously challenging a giant toad to a fist fight. The fuck!

"**You've got some nerve boy! How dare you challenge ME to a fight, as if you stood a chance!"**

"You still haven't answered my question. If I pass your test, I will be your subordinate, the question is, if I prove myself stronger than you, will you be MY subordinate?"

"**The balls on this kid… I like it! Alright boy, you're on! If you beat me, you gain the right to command the toads. But, if you lose, not only will I most likely kill you, but even if you live, you lose the right to ever summon a toad again, and you're banished from Mt. Myoboku forever!"**

"Alright…" At this, Naruto began to change. His eyes, hair, nails, and even his teeth bled black, a sudden wind whipped his coat to and fro, and his now black eyes burned with glowing red kanji. **"Let's get started."**

Gamabunta realized that there was a reason this kid felt confident challenging a giant toad, and wasted no more time. He pulled out his giant tanto and slammed the blunt side on the ground, trying to squash the little bastard. By the time Gamabunta's massive blade hit the ground Naruto was already directly beneath him, flying through hand signs.

"**Fuuton: Daitoppa! (Wind style: Great breakthrough)"**

The wind Naruto produced was so powerful it lifted Gamabunta into the air, sending him flying up three times his own massive height. But that didn't mean he was helpless…

"**Suiton: Teppodama (Water style: Gunshot)"**

Three massive balls of water burst forth from Gamabunta's mouth, one after the other, all overlapping and heading directly toward Naruto's comparatively tiny frame.

"**Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu, Kaito! (Fire style: Grand fireball technique, Decompress!)"**

Naruto proceeded to impress by exhaling a fireball the same size as all three of Gamabunta's water bullets put together. The projectiles collided in a massive explosion of mist, all three water balls being necessary to dissipate the massive fireball. And even through the mist, Naruto could see everything clearly, he watched as the giant toad began to fall…

"**Doton: Yomi Numa, Kaito!"**

Naruto slammed his hands onto the ground, turning most of the surrounding area into a sticky black swamp. Then he flashed away to wherever Jiraiya was hiding, except the flash wasn't yellow… It couldn't even really be called a flash, for it was pitch black, like all the light had been momentarily sucked out of the spot Naruto had just been standing in. A midnight flash.

Gamabunta wasn't dumb enough to fall for that, he grabbed his sword with both hands and stabbed it into the ground. As his hands began to slip down the handle, he slammed his hind legs onto the butt of the sword and used his toad legs to leap off, landing on top of the forested area surrounding the training grounds and hurting himself slightly on the treetops.

'**Where'd he go...?'**

(CLAP)

"**Kinpo: Ranbou Bunshin no Jutsu (Forbidden art: Unreasonable Clone Technique)"**

(POOF)

On the opposite end of the swamp appeared a Naruto clone. The clone's appearance was back to normal, as in his hair and eyes were normal colored, but there was one major difference. He was 100 feet (3048 cm) tall. Gamabunta himself is only about 80 feet (2438.4 cm) tall, so needless to say he was pretty intimidated.

'**Now I have to fight a giant ninja… without my sword. Well fuck.'**

Gigantor Naruto wasted no time, he chucked a single massive shuriken at the toad boss and flashed through one of his favorite sets of hand seals.

"**Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"**

With a hail of giant shuriken flying at him Gamabunta had only two options, and leaping in the air didn't seem like a good idea, not now that he didn't have his sword to save him this time.

"**Suiton: Teppodama!"**

Using water bullets to stop a hail of blades seemed like a good idea at the time, but Naruto was already expecting this.

"**Nenton: Ikkyou no Nai (Combustion style: Deadly Surprise)"**

Just as the projectiles collided, the humongous shuriken exploded with such force and heat that it blasted Gamabunta back over a hundred yards (9144cm) and burned his face mildly. He bounced around do to the nature of the forested terrain, and ended up landing on his back, when gigantor Naruto came flying out of nowhere to land on top of him, sitting in his massive belly and holding a giant katana to his throat.

"**Do you yield?"**

"**NEVER!"**

Gamabunta uses his powerful toad legs to throw the clone over his head. He rolled over and put his hands together for one final assault.

"**Gamayudan!"**

Gamabunta spits out a giant glob of sticky oil that covers gigantor Naruto and holds him still. Then he takes his pipe out of his vest pocket, smirks, and goes to throw it at the oil covered giant. But before he has the chance to finish his throw…

"**Hi no Ishi: Saishuu Gisei! (Will of Fire: Final Sacrifice)"**

**(BOOOOOOOM!)**

The enormous shadow clone instantly converts every ounce of chakra it's made of into combustion style chakra, causing a massive explosion that blasts Gamabunta back so far that he lands in the swamp, which holds his burnt form still, making him completely helpless. He tries to reach for his sword, only half an arm's reach away, but the swamp holds him still as the real Naruto, still dangerously discolored, lands on him and begins to walk calmly up to his face.

"**Now do you yield?"**

"**(Pant, pant, pant) Alright. You win. You can command the toads."**

(POOF)

Without another word, Gamabunta poofs away to Mt. Myoboku, no doubt going to get his burns healed and the swamp muck off his back. Naruto flashes away once again to meet Jiraiya, who just keeps staring, dumfounded at what he just witnessed.

"I see you're impressed…(Cough)"

As Naruto turns back to normal, he lets out a wet, blood filled cough that snaps Jiraiya out of his stupor.

"Are you alright? That black chakra you were using… it was Kyuubi's wasn't it?"

"Technically no, but I'll tell you about that later, when we're walking to our mission. For now I need to stop moving."

And with that, Naruto falls down on the ground and begins to dose off.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX  
To be continued  
XXXXXXXXXXXXX

**(1) **I'm not describing Jiraiya, if you really don't know what he looks like, you shouldn't be reading this.

So, was it awesome, terrible, should I have waited the extra time to complete the chapter I had planned before posting it? You can't tell me any of this unless you REVIEW!

also, as a side note, ffnet, for whatever reason, has trouble registering a bunch of X's, so Im going to have to switch over to - to seperate the location from everything else. I tried a row of -'s, but that didn't work either. Sigh. God damn this site.


	6. Human Weapons

What's up readers! I had an amazing spring break, nothing but video games and sleep. I wish every week could be that awesome… But it isn't! And so here you are, reading fanfiction to relieve the boredom of real life. Anyway, you'll notice that I've removed 'Pairing undecided. NO YAOI!' from the description. This is because I've decided on the pairings already, and also because it's a little homophobic to arbitrarily put 'NO YAOI' in the description. Anyway, you probably shouldn't waste time suggesting pairings anymore, I'm not listening. Use that extra space to tell me how I did, good, terrible, whatever. So, let's get on with the show.

Human Weapons

Disclaimer: One day I'll publish something, and then I'll write a fanfiction about it, just so that I can say I own it! Ahahahaha!

* * *

On the road, Fire Country, one hour later

Naruto and Jiraiya were walking calmly down the road heading east, Jiraiya looking at Naruto out of the corner of his eye as if he were a three headed giraffe.

"What's with the weird look old man?"

"Nothing, it's just… how the hell are you standing? You took on Gamabunta less than an hour ago!"

"Oh, right. Well I guess I should just answer your previous question then. You'll understand if I tell you about the black chakra you saw."

"Alright, what was it then?"

"Well, as you guessed it came from the Kyuubi, but it wasn't actually Kyuubi's chakra. As you already know I improved my father's seal a few years ago, so that it would convert all of the fox's chakra into my own as it leaks out. This helps me better control my chakra, since there can't be any Bijuu chakra floating around my system unnecessarily. As a side effect it also purifies all chakra that enters my body and converts it into my own, making me immune to Genjutsu."

"But if none of Kyuubi's chakra can remain as its own outside the seal, what the hell was that massive power you had?"

"I was getting to that… Anyway, at any given time I can loosen the seal to allow more of Kyuubi's chakra to leak out, but if I open it too much my chakra pathways will overflow and burst, causing severe internal damage. That's why there's a failsafe seal that only activates when I open the seal too far. What it does, you see, is condense the chakra after it gets purified, so that all that massive amount of chakra will be compressed down to a reasonable amount. Well condensed chakra is extremely powerful, as you saw. Using condensed chakra to perform the **Fuuton: Daitoppa** created a blast of wind strong enough to blast Gamabunta into the air. But then, sometimes a powerful jutsu isn't as useful as a larger one, like when I had to block those massive water bullets, for example. When that happens, I use the seals grafted onto my cloths, specifically though not always the ones on my gloves, to decompress the chakra as it leaves my body. That way I can create massive fireballs or swamps or whatever, instead of just powerful ones."

"Wow… that's awesome! It's like you have infinite chakra!"

"Not exactly, condensed chakra is extremely dangerous and causes damage to the body just by its use. Now normally my healing abilities would take care of it, but you see condensed chakra doesn't flow through the body as quickly as regular chakra does, and for reasons that I haven't been able to fully research yet, the thicker my chakra gets the worse my healing becomes, which is why the Uzumaki clan wasn't immortal. So I can't use it for too long or I could die."

"That's interesting… What do you mean when you say 'which is why the Uzumaki clan wasn't immortal'?"

"(Sigh) You ask a lot of questions for an old man. Alright, well the Uzumaki bloodline limit uses chakra to create new cells to replace dead ones, which is how we can regenerate lost limbs and whatnot. This cell creation eliminates the need for mitosis, which is when your cells split and multiply. Mitosis is the cause of aging, cells can only multiply so many times. So you see, an Uzumaki whose healing abilities have fully matured stops aging entirely. This happens around age twenty five or so usually. But over time a person's chakra begins to thicken, which slows down the healing abilities, and I'll start to age again. Of course, the more chakra you have the longer you can go without aging, which is why every Uzumaki was trained to be a shinobi, regardless of their wishes."

"That's… I mean wow! How long will you live for?"

"The average lifespan of an Uzumaki was reportedly about a hundred and thirty years old, but stronger shinobi lived to be two hundred. I am a Jinchuuriki; my chakra reserves at age twelve are already higher than yours. So how long will I live? Who knows, the oldest Uzumaki in history lived to be seven hundred and twelve, so I'm not really worried about dying any time soon."

"Damn kid, I'm jealous. I'm only fifty and I'm already an old man. You probably won't look like me 'till you're ten times that!"

"Heh, you missed the point entirely. I was trying to say that while I'm in that state of fully condensed chakra, my body is constantly taking damage, and at the same time my bloodline can't heal me."

"Yeah, I got that, but… Come on man! Are you telling me you don't even care a little that you're going to live for so long? I mean, people would kill their own siblings to get what you have!"

"(Sigh) Yes, I had my moment of 'holy shit I'm immortal' years ago. But honestly, I got over it. Do you expect me to get up every morning and go, 'woo hoo! I'm alive and that won't change for a really long time!' Come on, be realistic. I'm not going to change how I live or anything, all this means is that I can plan ahead a little further than most people can."

"You mean a lot further! You could live to be a thousand!"

"Yeah, I suppose. Shouldn't we be moving faster? Eventually Kiri is going to send their own forces after this thing."

"Hold on kid, there's one more thing we've got to talk about first."

"Eh, What now?"

"Well, it's just that… The old man says you've been working on 'the perfect weapon.' Is that true?"

"Yes, I've been building the ultimate shinobi tool through Fuinjutsu, so that future generations of Konoha shinobi won't have to die at such young ages. Is there a problem with that?"

"Of course there is! Do you even realize where this dream, the perfect weapon, came from?"

"Yes, I got it from Anko-nechan. I know where it comes from and what trouble it's caused."

"Then you understand why I can't just take this lightly. The perfect weapon, the Nidaime Hokage's dream that no Konoha shinobi should ever have to die in battle again, caused him to delve into forbidden jutsu to the point where he foolishly discovered the most unholy jutsu ever created!"

"Yes, the **Edo Tensei** **(Impure World Resurrection)**. He mastered that jutsu which caused-"

"Which caused the old man's rival Danzo to harbor the belief that a great ninja shouldn't have morals! Do you have any idea how much trouble that old man has caused in his day, with his ROOT project and his warmongering views! And how the hell do you know about the Edo Tensei anyway?"

"The old man asked me to build a copy of my father's vault underneath the Hokage tower, so that he could move the forbidden library. I agreed under the condition that he let me read some of it. He agreed, so I read all of it."

"What the hell old man…? Damn it! I can't believe Anko would even tell you about that, after what it did to her."

"She doesn't blame the dream for what happened. Orochimaru may have been inspired by Danzo and the Nidaime to actually attempt immortality, but he never really cared about the perfect weapon the way it was intended. That dream, that the children of Konoha won't ever have to be sent to their deaths again, is an incredible and heroic idea that meant everything to the Nidaime. The old man has faith in me to see his teacher's dream come true, and as it happens I think I've almost completed it."

"What?"

"Don't worry; it's nothing like what your teammate had in mind. I don't intend to turn leaf shinobi into abominations. It's a combination of the Fuingan, which you already know about, the **Renge Fuin (Lotus Seal)** that I use to increase my physical abilities, the application of Tsunade-hime's plan to include at least one medic in every squad, and something extra that isn't completed yet."

"Wait, you mean… you copied the Sharingan, Konoha's most powerful Kekkei Genkai, the most impressive feat of Fuinjutsu since the invention of the Jinchuuriki, and you plan to just… give it away?"

"Of course. The perfect weapon requires giving our shinobi an unfair advantage in Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu. There's nothing that could ever get the job done as well as the Sharingan in any of these fields."

And all at once Jiraiya understood. The old man knew what he was doing. In Naruto he saw the same kind of greatness he saw in his teacher the Nidaime, the same kind of greatness he saw in all of his students. Naruto had gone through so much at the hands of Konoha, suffered near death at the age of four more times than most people experience by age fifty. And yet… he still held the will of fire in his heart. He was still willing to give everything he had to protect his home and everything it represents, including the people that caused him so much pain. He was only twelve, but Sarutobi-sensei already saw the makings of the perfect Hokage in that boy, and he believed in him, to the point that he would trust him with his sensei's old obsession. He trusted him not only to match the greatness of his teacher, but to surpass it.

But it wasn't just spirit. No, Jiraiya knew, because he saw it too, that the old man saw the same kind of genius in Naruto that his father had. The Nidaime's attempt at the perfect weapon involved poking around with forbidden jutsu and hunting for powerful artifacts like the Raijin, hoping that he'd eventually stumble upon some sort of mythical power up that he'd be able to somehow distribute amongst his forces. Danzo's attempt involved turning human beings into weapons with no emotion that have no hope of ever feeling like their lives were worth living. But Naruto was smarter than that. He had broken the problem into pieces and solved each one with realistic, synthetic solutions that could easily be replicated.

The problem? Increase the power of a shinobi's Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsu, the three main powers of any given shinobi, as well as increase their overall survivability. He solved the first three with Fuinjutsu, increasing their abilities of insight, the most powerful tool in a shinobi's arsenal, as well as empowering their Taijutsu through the same principles as Konoha's strongest Taijutsu secret, the lotus. He then increased their overall survivability by giving them the one thing they've always needed more of, medics.

"I'm impressed with you kid. You really have inherited your father's will of fire. And you were right; you surpassed me a long time ago."

"Thanks… Ero-sennin."

"Heh, I thought I was free of that nickname."

"Nah, you're still the perverted old hermit I remember."

"I see… That's good to hear."

There was a long pause where they both just kept walking, unsure of what to say. Naruto was about to suggest they speed up again when…

"So, how did you manage to convince the old fools who run things that Tsunade was right all along?"

It seems the old man isn't willing to give up this peaceful conversation without a fight. Alright then… they have plenty of time anyway.

"It isn't really complete; we've only just started to make the changes. The first problem was that medic jutsu training requires a lot of chakra control, which isn't heavily emphasized in the academy. That was easy to solve, the old man agreed with me immediately when I suggested adding the basic tree climbing exercise to the curriculum. But as far as actually training medic ninjas is concerned, I've only gotten as far as making it optional for any senior level academy student to take an extra course in basic medical training. It's not very extensive, but it does teach the most basic of all medical jutsu and its various applications, and the class has gotten a surprisingly large number of volunteers, so that's good."

"I see… Well it's something. I'll have to make sure I tell Tsunade about that if I get the chance, she'd be happy to hear it."

"Yeah…"

"So, uh… why don't you tell me about the part of your 'perfect weapon' that isn't finished yet?"

Naruto just looked at him, raising an eyebrow. What's with this old man, why is he so interested all of a sudden?

"Well… as you know the ANBU already have a suicide seal that burns the body if it dies. What you probably didn't think about, however, is that this seal has a weakness. The body is not completely incinerated, bones are often recovered, albeit charred ones. Still…"

"You want to burn these seals into the bone, and you don't want any of them falling into the enemies' hands."

"Exactly. I came up with a solution that works, but it isn't finished yet. If I could just perfect it, it could be _so_ much more than a simple suicide technique. It has the potential to maybe make the suicide aspect of it unnecessary, which is the point after all."

"Well, what's the problem? I know you think you're a god and all, but you _can_ ask for help. I'm still the guy who taught your dad most of what he knew about Fuinjutsu you know."

"(Sigh) Well I finally managed to make a seal that can convert chakra into elemental chakra with the same efficiency as a body can when using its elemental affinity." And already Jiraiya's jaw was hitting the floor. Maybe this kid _is _a god! "I had the idea to make a seal that converts the entire sea of chakra into half fire, half wind chakra and then merge them, to completely destroy the body and anyone around it. It's the same technique you saw my giant shadow clone do against Gamabunta at the end, except anyone could do it. Technically I've already succeeded, but since the combined chakra destabilizes and explodes immediately, you can't utilize the chakra at all. But imagine if you could, it would be like synthesizing the elemental side of the Uzumaki Kekkei Genkai. Our ninjas, all of them, could use sub elemental Jutsus!"

"That does sound pretty amazing, but I don't get it. Why do you have so much trouble getting the chakra to stabilize? Is it perhaps just the element choice? Fire and wind is pretty volatile."

"No, that's not it. It's because I've taken four different seals and tried to mash them together. I just can't do it all at once."

"Four?"

"The way I managed to create a conversion seal of such efficiency is by creating five different seals, each one tailored towards its own element. Plus you have to add the seal needed to merge two elemental chakras together, _and_ the stabilizer. It just doesn't work when you try to throw them all together like that."

"Hmm… It sounds like you're trying to do too much on your own. Haven't you ever considered the abilities of the user?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, what if you put the seal that explodes in there separately, and then added another seal elsewhere, one that only converts _one _element and merely _helps_ the merging process. Then you could leave it up to the user to use their own natural affinity, merge the two, and sustain it themselves."

"That's… Brilliant! You've done it Ero-sennin! After all that complaining you did, it's thanks to you that I can complete the perfect weapon!"

"Heh, of course. After all, I'm still the toad sage."

"You mean the booby sage, now come on. Now I _really_ want to finish this mission!"

And with that, Naruto waited no more. He took off into the trees, hoping to get the Bijuu quickly and go back home, so that he could finally finish his life's work…

Six hours later

(Thud…thud)

After six hours of strait running through the forest, a day and a half worth of normal travel, Naruto finally stops on a branch of a tree overlooking a cliff, at the bottom of which is a rather large lake.

"(Pant…pant…pant) Naruto… (Pant)… What the hell is wrong with you! (Pant)… We did NOT need to run for six hours stra-"

"Shut up!"

Naruto's whispered scream was enough to let Jiraiya know something was seriously wrong. He joined Naruto in looking over the edge and saw it immediately. There was an effeminate blond man in a black coat with red clouds riding a clay dragon directly toward the Sanbi's head.

"Akatsuki."

(boom!)

"There's two of them, but the other one isn't moving. He's just… standing there. And his chakra… He isn't human."

(Boom! "Yeah, take that ya freakin' turtle! Yeah!")

"Where is he, I don't see him."

"He's over there, hiding rather well. There's no way he can hide from these eyes though. Still… there are strings of chakra nearly covering the outer shell that I'm supposed to believe is his body. He's definitely a puppet user, and there's only one S-ranked puppet user in the bingo books."

"Akasuna no Sasori." (BOOM!) "But how, shouldn't he be dead?"

"It's not important right now. The point is, if he really is Sasori then we don't have much time before he notices us. We have to decide on a strategy."

"I'll take Sasori and you take bomber man over there, sound good?"

(Boom! BOOM! **BOOM!** "Die damn it, DIE! YEAH!" BOOM!)

"No, that won't work. If we ignore the Sanbi it'll either escape or things will get… troublesome."

"Alright then, what do you suggest?"

(Boom!)

"Obviously one of us has to keep the Bijuu busy. Now, I _could_ use my condensed chakra to seal it immediately, but I wouldn't be able to fight for much longer afterwards. At best, I might be able to injure bomber man before passing out again." (Boom!) "So, you would be left with two S-ranked opponents and an immobile teammate that you're forced to protect. No matter how you look at it, that's not a good situation. Instead, I'd suggest that I sneak attack Sasori, then when that fails, you knock bomber man over to me and summon a big ass toad to distract the Sanbi while I take on both ninjas."

(BOOM! "WHY! WON'T! YOU! DIE! YYYEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Boom-boom-boom!)

"Sounds like a plan. Except that you injured Gamabunta recently, remember?"

"So? There's more than one giant toad, right? You only have to distract it anyway, when I'm done with my fight I'll go all out and seal it immediately."

"Do you really think you can kill them bo-"

"Too late, we're starting."

(Flash)

"Wait, WHAT!"

Down by Sasori

(Flash)

"Rasengan!"

Naruto flashes right in front of Sasori, Rasengan already spinning in hand. He charges, fast as the wind, right into Sasori's giant spiny tail.

"Hmph"

(Poof)

"Wha-!"

(CRACK)

Six Narutos burst out from under him, all at once while Sasori's tail is still thrusting forward. They all grab the hunchback figure, latching onto whatever they can.

"**Hi no Ishi: Saishuu Gisei!**"

(BOOOOM!)

Chunks of wood and dry bone fly everywhere, four trees nearby fall over in the blast, burning relentlessly, the start of a good forest fire.

"So, Akasuna no Sasori, I've heard a lot about you."

(Crack… BANG!)

A fifth tree falls over in Naruto's direction, which he sidesteps, and behind it a rather short young man in an Akatsuki coat is revealed with a saw blade protruding from his arm unnaturally.

"You broke Hiruko… Who are you?"

"Name's Naruto…" (Rasengan!) "Hold on, I'll be right back." Naruto spins around, chucking a kunai behind him just as pipes pop out of Sasori's palms.

"**Kunai Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!**"

"Die!"

Deidara lands directly behind Naruto after Jiraiya's attack, and Sasori blasts fire at Naruto as he turns around.

(Flash)

"Shit!"

(Clang!)

Deidara curses as Naruto flashes right in front of him, swinging a sword that he blocks by grabbing the tip of the blade with the teeth in his hands.

(Flash)

The hail of kunai comes dangerously close to killing them both, when Naruto flashes behind them all at the last moment, but Deidara can't dodge and ends up looking like a pincushion.

"KATSU!"

(Flash)

Naruto flashes one more time, directly behind the clay clone, and stabs it with his sword as it courses with lightning chakra, canceling the explosive nature of the clone.

"As I was saying, my name is Naruto, Naruto Namikaze. And what's your name, bomber man?"

("**Kuchiyose no Jutsu!**" BAAAAAANG!)

A giant magenta toad with a spiked pitchfork thing and a shield appears over by the Sanbi, which everyone ignores.

"I'm Deidara, yeah. And you cut my tongue, yeah! I'll kill you, YEAH!"

The angry blonde man throws a couple of small clay birds at Naruto, which he easily cut into pieces with his lightning sword.

"Why do you keep saying 'yeah'? Are you retarded or something? And stop with the bombs already, don't you have any other jutsu? These things are just cute little figurines against me."

"What did you say! I'll show you the power of my art, YEAH!"

With that he summons another clay dragon and flies up, preparing something in his hands the whole way.

"Oh great, you've pissed him off."

Despite the annoyed words, no emotion escapes the puppet master's voice or his face as he summons up a puppet in a dark gray trench coat with a furry neck lining.

'It's hard to tell but… isn't that the Sandaime Kazekage? It's true then… this guy really did cause the third great shinobi war.'

"C3!"

(Poof)

Naruto looks up, only to see a very large bird like statue falling toward him.

'I see, he's using an explosive too large for me to dodge, and is going to detonate it before it even gets close enough to slice. How… predictable.'

Naruto notices that Sasori has summoned a mass of black sand, confirming that the puppet is, indeed, the Sandaime Kazekage, and is using it to create a protective dome around himself while simultaneously sending a tendril of it underground to hold Naruto in place.

'Too easy…'

(Bang)

Right before the sand gets too close, Naruto thrusts his arm up and launches a kunai into the air with some kind of contraption in his sleeve. The kunai is still attached to him by an impossibly long chain made entirely of chakra absorbing metal, and when it collides with the giant falling clay bomb it retracts, pulling him up away from the sand.

"Too bad, KATSU!"

But nothing happens, Naruto has already pumped lightning chakra through the chain, nullifying the deadly explosive. Unfortunately, lightning chakra is destructive, and so the chain dislodges itself, causing Naruto to start falling directly toward a massive wall of black sand.

"**Fuuton: Kami Oroshi (Wind style: Godly Wind from the mountain)**"

Naruto thrusts his hands forwards in a kind of twisting motion, creating a large, spinning ball of wind that blasts a hole in the sand wall, allowing him to fall freely.

(Thud, CRACK)

Naruto lands, only to immediately get assaulted by a swarm of clay insects from underground. He whips out his sword and spins around to quickly slice them all apart; all the while the sand wall is rushing back down on top of him. Naruto lets go of his sword, not even pausing in his spin.

"**KAITEN! (Whirl)**"

Naruto spins up a violent dome of spinning chakra, pushing back the deadly sand and blasting his own sword up into the sky, where it nearly takes Deidara's head off.

'Holy shit! Did he really just do that?'

Deidara doesn't have time to be impressed, as the dust clears from Naruto's Kaiten, the blond wonder is nowhere to be seen…

Over by Jiraiya

"Holy SHIIIIT!"

(BOOOOOOOOOOM!)

The massive turtle had blasted a beam of what appeared to be the same dense chakra Naruto uses right at him, and while Gamaken was swift enough to dodge it, the shockwave had blasted Jiraiya off toward the cliff face.

(CLANG!)

(Flash)

Jiraiya was scared at first when a Katana flew out of nowhere and nearly decapitated him, but then it stuck itself into the cliff and Naruto appeared on top of it, catching him like he was a beanbag.

"Try not to die old man."

(Flash)

Naruto flashes away, leaving the sword for Jiraiya to stand on.

"(Pant) Damn that brat, he really is better than me."

Back at the ninja fight

"Where are you brat, come out and die, YEAH!"

(Boom-boom-boom-boom)

'So the dumb one plans on blowing up the entire forest to find me, but I wonder what you're up to.'

Sasori was standing over by the kunai that Naruto threw at Deidara before, staying at least fifteen feet (457cm) away and paying close attention to his surroundings.

'So the scorpion is smart, as I expected. He's already figured out my Hiraishin, and predicted that I'd likely appear over by the teleportation point I set up earlier. He also noticed that it has a range limit. Too bad for him, I'm smarter than that. Alright, while I still have surprise on my side I suppose I should go all out.'

"**Nenton: Tekidan Seki (Combustion style: Grenade Barrage)**!"

Naruto spits out several orbs of destructive chakra, all aimed directly at Sasori.

(BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!)

Sasori manages to block the explosions with his iron sand, but the force of the explosion blasts it all away, leaving him open…

"**Fuuton: Rasenshuriken (Wind style: Spiraling shuriken)**!"

"Katsu!"

(BOOOOM!)

Naruto is forced to dodge as a huge explosion rips the forest to his right to pieces, and at the same time he notices that a clay bird has thrown itself in the way of his attack, causing it to burst into a huge ball of wasted, spiraling doom.

'God damn it, fighting them both is becoming bothersome. Luckily for me, the dum one has separated himself from his partner. Now, for a distraction…'

"**Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"**

And just like that, Naruto had an army.

"**Satetsu Shigure (Sand iron Drizzle)**!"

Sasori blasts a hail of iron on top of Naruto's army, but it has no effect. Using each other as Hiraishin beacons, each and every clone dodges the supersonic projectiles at light speed.

"You'll have to do better than that, **Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu (Fire style: Phoenix sage fire Technique)**!"

The army of Narutos launched an army of fireballs at the puppet user, leaving him with no choice but to cover himself and his puppet in iron sand to protect them, while Naruto leaps into the air…

"Float."

The lotus seal, only visible on his fingers and head, begin to glow a bright green color, and suddenly he isn't falling back down, in fact he's rising up even further.

"Holy shit, the fucker can fly, yeah… Katsu!"

(Boom!)

Deidara throws a group of birds at the kid and detonates them, just to see if he could knock him off course. The blonde merely dodges, but it's enough to tell him what he wants to know.

'So he can change direction, and he's fast. But more importantly, why did he dodge them? If he's that fast, he could have easily canceled them out. Is he running low on chakra?'

Just then, Sasori shot a mass of sand in front of him.

"**Fuuton: Kami Oroshi!**"

'Alright, so he's definitely not out of chakra. Wait, let me try something.'

Deidara spits out a group of small birds, sending them right up to the blond before detonating.

'Shit, he noticed.'

(Clap!)

"Katsu!"

"**Fuuton: Shugo Parusu (Wind style: Guardian Pulse)!**"

(BOOOM!)

Deidara saw Naruto fly out of the smoke cloud completely unharmed, but smiled anyway.

'He managed to block the explosion by expelling wind chakra from his body in every direction, but why wind? Since he started flying he's only used wind chakra, which means that his flight is dependent on wind nature chakra and he can't mold any other element or he could lose concentration and fall. Which means that right now, while he's vulnerable, I'll hit him with all I've got!"

"Alright brat, TAKE THIS!"

Deidara reaches into his clay pouches and eats every ounce of clay he has left. He thrusts his hand forward and spits out an entire flock of small, deadly birds.

"Art is an EXPLOSION!"

'Well shit, maybe he's not so dumb after all. Still, I win this fight!'

Naruto puts on a sudden burst of speed, getting as close as possible to the nearest birds.

"Katsu!"

(Flash)

With a flash Naruto's sword is in his hand, slashing through the air at as many birds as he can reach. But at the same time, he stops glowing and starts to free fall. Not that it mattered…

(BOOM!)

(Flash)

And just like that, Naruto was back where he was a second ago; he had left a kunai behind before his burst of speed and teleported back to it before the explosion started to hurt. Knowing that he can't stop moving for too long, he immediately throws the kunai into the nearest bird, charged with lightning chakra for good measure.

(Flash)

Naruto flashes back into the flock of birds and grabs his kunai, slashing with his sword as he throws the knife up through a bird right above him.

"KATSU!"

(BOOM!)

(Flash)

Seeing that his attack was failing, Deidara detonates as many birds as he can, just as Naruto had completed his throw.

"**Chidori Joretsu (One thousand birds Pecking)**!" **(1)**

Now directly above the threat, Naruto swings his sword in an arch, letting loose a hail of small lightning needles.

"Shit!"

Deidara desperately reaches for his extra clay bag in his coat, but it was already too late…

(Bang)

Naruto launches his chain blade right into Deidara's mount, pulling himself towards him rapidly.

(Thud)

"Fuck!"

(Smack, smack)

Naruto lands and immediately throws a punch, which is caught, so he throws another one, which is also caught.

"Heh."

Thinking that the boy finally made a mistake, Deidara smirks. Until…

(Shink)

A blade thrusts out from each of Naruto's sleeves, turning his punches into painful impalements, especially so since the custom made, chakra absorbing metal combat toothpicks had managed to perfectly pierce both of the tongues in Deidara's hands.

"SON OF A-"

"Shock."

The lotus seal fades into a vivid blue color, and all at once Naruto's entire body is coursing with lightning chakra, nullifying any chance of Deidara countering with an explosion or any other kind of movement, as every muscle in his body locks up and spasms uncontrollably.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

'Shit.'

Naruto is forced to jump away as a mass of iron sand flies up and envelops the entire clay dragon.

'Damn, he isn't dead. Oh well, I doubt he'll manage to accomplish anything more than running away at this point. Now, where's the big brother…"

(Flash)

Naruto appeared next to one of his remaining clones, noticing that Sasori had to give up a good chuck of his sand to save Deidara.

'I'm almost impressed, there's only thirty out of a hundred clones left. That puppet is too dangerous.'

"**Nenton: Kondan no jutsu!**"

"**Hi no Ishi: Saishuu Gisei!**"

Naruto launches an explosion at Sasori, while at the same time his clones start leaping at the puppet and exploding when the sand gets close enough.

(BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOOOOOOOM!)

Sasori himself dodges the projectile, while barely managing to protect his puppet with the sand, causing most of it to get scattered to the four winds…

"**Katon: Rasenhoshi (Fire style: Spiraling star)!**"

A single clone manages to slip past Sasori's attention, slamming a flaming Rasengan right through the Sandaime Kazekage's chest.

"**Fuuton: Rasenshuriken!**"

The real Naruto chucks another spiraling ball of doom at the puppet, once again no more sand to protect it. Except this time, no bomber man to protect it either.

(BOOOOOOOOOOM!)

The combination of spinning fire and wind chakra turns into an enormous sphere of flaming destruction, ensuring that no matter what, that puppet was _gone_.

"Impressive Naruto-kun. If you were any other opponent, I would be retreating by now. As it stands, however, I cannot leave here without you."

"And why is that?"

"Because, the Sanbi is lost. Even if my teammate wasn't injured and we had the element of surprise we would have no chance of defeating Jiraiya of the sannin. You, however, are the Kyuubi. If I fail in my mission but bring you back, my master shall not be too angry."

"And who is this master of yours? Is it… Madara Uchiha!"

"…Interesting, that man is dead. Why would you ask that?"

"I see, you don't even know. How brilliant, he fully expected for nobody to know of his existence. He could not have accounted for my father's abilities to be so extensive. Excellent, my opponent is everything I expected him to be."

"I'm not certain what you're talking about, but I'm tired of waiting. **Akahigi: Hyakki no Soen (Red secret technique: Performance of a Hundred puppets)**!"

And now Sasori has an army… Well, this should be fun.

"**Nenton: Bakuhatsu Hyo (Combustion style: Explosive Hail)**!"

(boomboomboomboomboombooomboom-BOOOOOOOOOOM!)

About twenty Narutos spit out several hundred small embers of chakra each, all of which explode like firecrackers. Sasori jerks his hands to the sides as quickly as possible, but it doesn't matter. At least half of his puppets are lost in the blast.

"Kill them all!"

All the Narutos jump forward, ready to take on the thirty some odd puppets that are left. The puppets were more skilled in Taijutsu, but the clones could teleport anywhere within ten feet of each other, so it wasn't really fair. A few well-placed Rasengans and there were a few less puppets than there were clones, in only a minute and a half.

"Hold them down!"

Naruto leaps into the air, using 'float' to get a bit higher, while the clones all grab on to a puppet each, holding them nice and steady…

"**Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu**!"

"**Fuuton: Shugo Parusu**!"

Naruto lets loose a massive ball of fire that resembles a sizeable meteor, while at the same time all of the clones surround themselves in a normally protective ball of wind chakra.

(BOOOM!)

The resulting blast absolutely _incinerates_ the army of puppets, and Naruto is still not done.

(Bang!)

Naruto launches his chain blade at Sasori's feet, pulling himself right at him, ball of cackling lightning in hand.

(BANG!)

Sasori jumps back, avoiding Naruto as he crashes into the ground, kicking up more dust than an actual lightning bolt would have.

"Raikiri!"

Naruto charges out of the dust, lightning cutter still in hand ready to pierce the only part of Sasori that appears to have life.

"DIE!"

Sasori pulls his coat down to his waist, revealing a long cord with a spear on the end coiled up inside of his gut, which he launches directly at the incoming Naruto…

(Poof)

'No…'

(CRACK)

Sasori has no time to react as Naruto burst out from the ground, katana out and ready to skewer him from behind.

(Clunk)

Naruto's attack connects, only to hit an empty hole where Sasori's heart used to be. He watches the strange tube of flesh fly through the air, directly towards the one puppet Sasori managed to keep intact, minus an arm.

'Come on, make it in time… I win!'

"**Ameterasu!"**

Naruto closes one black and red eye and stares directly at his target, which spontaneously bursts into black flames at his gaze.

"**Gack!"**

Naruto falls over at the same time as Sasori's flaming heart, clutching his eye.

(Squish)

**"FFFFFFFUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKK!"**

Naruto reaches into his eye socket and pulls out a small, black piece of charcoal that used to be his eye.

"**DAMN IT! I still can't do that without losing an eye."**

Naruto spends a moment looking at the small orb in his hand, taking a breather and thinking about how odd it was that neither of his eyes were actually the ones he had been born with. In the perfection of this jutsu, he had regrown each eye at least four times…

(BANG…BANG-BANG…BANGBANGBANGBANG-BAAAAAANNNNNNGGGGGG!)

Naruto looks to his left, only to see that Jiraiya has managed to hit the Sanbi so hard that it skipped a few times against the forest before rolling like a giant bowling ball across the valley, directly towards Naruto.

'About time… I already had to use the condensed chakra and everything, though it was only for one attack.'

(Poof)

Naruto draws a line of blood from his eye down the side of his jacket lining, summoning an extremely large scroll which he grabs and throws at the Sanbi, unrolling it rather forcefully.

"**Fuinjutsu: Mugen Totsu no Fuin (Sealing technique: Seal of Endless Pain)!"**

The ridiculously large scroll unravels completely and lands underneath the Sanbi as it rolls nearer, its own rolling wrapping it up in surprisingly sturdy paper.

"**FUIN!"**

(Poof)

And in a simple puff of smoke the Sanbi is gone, the scroll somehow completely rolled up and rolling its way into Naruto's hands. It was the easiest thing in the world…

"God damn it!"

"**What is it now old man?"**

"Do you have any idea how hard it was to fight that thing? And you just… YOU COULD HAVE DONE THAT THE WHOLE TIME!"

"**Calm down, we talked about why that wasn't an option. Now get over here, I'm going to collapse when I cancel this and I want to be home when I do."**

"Hold on… What the hell is that?"

Jiraiya was referring to the black flames of Ameterasu that were currently burning the ground underneath what used to be Sasori's heart.

"**I'll tell you later, but thanks for reminding me."**

With that Naruto reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a small storage scroll, which he puts the puppet body of Sasori inside of.

"**You never know what could end up being useful."**

"Where's the other one?"

"**Oh, him, he ran away ten minutes ago. We can chase him if you like, I saw him going that way. Of course I only have a few more minutes of this and there's no guarantee that we'd find him so…"**

"Alright, I get it."

"**Good, now get over here."**

(Flash)

And they were gone…

To be continued

**(1) **Because Chidori senbon just doesn't sound cool enough.

Review bitches!


	7. The Council

Sorry for the wait but there was finals and then job hunting and then I was being lazy… feel free to hate me by the way, I'm never going to be a kind author. With that in mind, let's answer some questions.

Tstoldt- Like I said, I'm a mean author, and mean authors don't give spoilers. Muhuhahahaha!

Darkryus- Your answer is on the bottom of the page, start reading.

Lednacek- How DARE YOU! Jiraiya could never be that useless! How could you even say such a thing!

Dragonlord92- Shut the fuck up fat man (This is my friend, ignore him)

Jivablab- As you wish.

Disclaimer: (x)(x=N~Oxm). Translation: for all x in the universe, if x is Naruto then it is not owned by me.

Chapter 7: The Council

Xxx

Konoha Hospital, two days later

Xxx

Naruto awoke to a bright light and the intrusive feeling of someone forcing his eye open.

"You're awake, can you see?"

"Yes, I can. But not for much longer if you don't put that damn light away."

"Sorry, it's just interesting. I've dealt with a lot of foolish ninjas before, but none that would burn kanji into their own eye. I'm surprised you can see, what were you thinking?"

"(Sigh) This is why I didn't want the new doctor. I know what I'm doing, alright? I was admitted for damaged chakra coils, not eye problems. Leave me alone."

"Right, well, you can't repair a chakra coil, so I really don't understand why they gave you to me."

"Because you're new and I don't really need help, so they dumped me on you. Now, the mere fact that I'm awake means that I can leave, so please get out and let me change."

"Are you crazy? Yesterday you snuck out of your room to write on your own eye-ball, which you didn't have the day before when you collapsed in Hokage-sama's office, and now you want me to let you go?"

"Yeah, I do. Isn't the fact that my fucking eye grew back enough of a hint for you to realize that you aren't needed here? GO AW-"

"That's enough Naruto, be nice to the young doctor, he's just a bit confused is all."

"Ho-Hokage-sama!"

"Hello, I apologize for my young ninja here, he can be a bit… temperamental. He is right, however, there is no need for concern regarding this boy. Please, return to your other duties."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!"

With that, the poor lad ran off to make sure his other patients didn't sneak out or die on him.

"Hey old man, I found your turtle for you."

"I heard, and I'm impressed. Jiraiya says you managed to seal the beast, kill Sasori of the red sands, and save his life, all on your own."

"Yeah, I just wish I could've killed the other one, or maybe even captured him. Then we would really know…"

"You can worry about Akatsuki later, for now you have something important to do."

"That's right, I've figured out how to finish my seal!"

Naruto whips the covers off himself, springs off the bed and rips the closet door open.

"Ahem"

Naruto pulls out his clothing, and after confirming that everything was there, he goes to tear off his hospital gown.

"Naruto!"

"Eh?"

He stops just in time to save Sarutobi from the sight of a naked 12 year old boy. Naruto looked at the old man with confusion, wondering why the god of shinobi, who had once literally ripped out a man's anus, was suddenly so concerned about modesty.

"Listen for a change. I wasn't talking about your latest project, there's a council meeting you have to attend."

"Right… and why can't Akio go? You know… like he always has."

"Two reasons. One, the subject is what to do with the Sanbi now that we have it, and as Konoha's greatest expert on Fuinjutsu, you really need to be there. Two, you're a Jonin now, which qualifies you as an adult and acting head of the Namikaze clan, so Akio can't take your place anymore."

The reason Naruto has a seat on the council is that when Minato became Hokage, he put the paperwork through to make the Namikaze clan an official Kekkei Genkai wielding clan of Konoha, and because everyone loved the fourth so much and the Uzumaki bloodline is so powerful, everyone agreed that it should have a seat on the shinobi council. As a minor, Naruto couldn't go to meetings himself, so he declared the Haruno family to be a trusted ally of the Namikaze clan and made Akio his proxy for such meetings. The council had called for Sasuke to do the same when his clan was destroyed, but the eight year old brat declared that no one but an Uchiha had the right to speak for his clan.

"Oh… I suppose there's no way I can get out of this, huh?"

"No. Now let's go, the meeting was supposed to be earlier, but I postponed it because of your little stunt yesterday."

"I had to replace my Fuingan in the eye I regrew, do you expect me to do Jonin level missions with one working eye?"

"It could have waited… whatever, just get dressed and be in the council chamber in ten minutes."

With that, the old man impatiently walked out the door, tired of dealing with the annoying brat.

"Ten minutes huh? That gives me enough time to check out the results of the genin exams."

With that thought in mind, Naruto hastily throws his cloths on before

(Flash)

Xxx

Konoha Ninja Academy

Xxx

(Flash)

Naruto appears outside, where they do most of the Taijutsu training, surprised to see that the testing was still going on, as Hinata was standing before Mizuki-sensei in her battle stance.

"Hey Iruka-sensei."

"Oh, hey Naruto. You came just in time, Hinata is about to do her Taijutsu test."

"Yeah, what's up with that? Isn't the testing supposed to be over by now, and where's everyone else?"

"One of the students collapsed during their test, so I had Hinata bring them to the infirmary. She just got back, so I'm letting her do the test now."

"Oh, I see."

"Alright Hinata-san, come at with everything you've got!"

"Hai, Mizuki-sensei!"

With that, Hinata charges forward, much faster than Mizuki was expecting, going for a palm thrust strait to the chest.

'Too direct'

Mizuki thought, and goes to brush her hand to the side, when suddenly she stops her strike midway and lets loose the same strike with her other hand, three times as fast as she was before.

(SMACK)

"GACK!"

With one strike, Mizuki falls over, hacking up blood.

"MIZUKI!"

Iruka runs over to his friend, just as Hinata's skin stops glowing with kanji…

"Haha! That was great Hinata-chan! But you didn't need to use the seal on him. It was only a test you know."

"Ah, gomen. But he said to come at him with all I have so…"

"Ahehehe, you're getting cruel Hinata-chan. I think Anko-nee is starting to rub off on you."

Hinata looks down at Mizuki, now vomiting all over Iruka's feet.

"Hmm… I think you might be right Naruto-kun."

"Ah don't worry, he'll be fine. Anyway, how did Sakura and Kiba do?"

"Well let's see, Sakura broke Mizuki-sensei's ribs, but then she healed him so she got extra points for that **(1)**. Before that, Iruka-sensei had been doing the tests, but Kiba gave him a concussion, so Mizuki-sensei took over for him."

"(Sigh) I knew you guys wouldn't be able to hold back. Oh well, at least your scores will be high. Well this was fun, but I have to go. See you later Hinata-chan."

"See you,"

(Flash)

"Naruto-kun."

Xxx

Council Meeting Room

Xxx

(Flash)

Naruto appeared in his chair next to Tsume Inuzuka, already falling into it.

"Now that everyone is here, why don't we get started? I, Sarutobi Hiruzen, herby convene this meeting of Konohagakure's shinobi and civilian council, beginning with the topic of the newly acquired Bijuu, the three tailed turtle. Opening remarks?"

An old woman sitting next to Sarutobi stood up.

"Before we begin discussing what to do with the beast, we should first be told how it is being held, so as to determine how immediately our decision needs to be made."

"Excellent idea Koharu. Naruto, if you please."

"Right."

Naruto bites his finger and draws a line of blood along the inside of his coat. In a poof of smoke, the scroll containing the Sanbi appears.

"This scroll contains the Sanbi."

A wave of frightened murmurs erupts from the civilian side of the room, none of them expecting a Bijuu to be so casually carried into a council meeting. But Sarutobi speaking is enough to quiet them down.

"Can you confirm, as Konoha's top sealing expert, how long this scroll will be able to contain the beast?"

"Well, I modeled the seal after the one containing the Kyuubi, a much more powerful creature, so there's no immediate danger of the Sanbi escaping. However, without a living container, not to mention the help of the Shinigami which my father had, it won't last forever. I give this seal a minimum of ten years before it begins to break."

"Well then, we have no need to rush into a decision."

"Nonsense!"

An old man, this one sitting in front of the civilian council and covered in bandages, spoke up.

"Excuse me Danzo? Are you suggesting that Naruto-kun's sealing skills cannot be trusted?"

"No, I am saying that we cannot wait around to make a decision. The Bijuu might be contained inside that scroll, but it cannot be used from it. We must act, and get the most use out of this beast!"

"Actually, if I may, the Sanbi _can_ be used from here."

"Hm? Explain Naruto."

"This is also a summoning scroll. I can summon the Sanbi at any time from this scroll, and the seals will attach themselves to my lotus seal, allowing me to exert my will upon it. I may not be able to utilize its chakra to the fullest, since it is such a powerful creature, but I would be able to control its movements, and get it to do some basic attacks."

"Interesting, but can we really trust two Bijuu to one child?"

"That's enough Danzo! Naruto is the one who captured the beast in the first place, and has more than proven himself as a capable shinobi. And besides, he has already proven he can be trusted with demons. He still is in possession of the one taken from the Kurama clan, and has never once tried to use it against Konoha."

"Danzo's brashness aside" An old man sitting on Sarutobi's other side began, "he does bring up a good point. Having both Bijuu in the hands of one shinobi is a waste of power. It would be in Konoha's best interest to decide on a living vessel as quickly as possible."

"Yes, thank you Homura, but that kind of thinking is exactly why I called this meeting. I believe all of you are aware of the history behind Jinchuuriki. Simply sealing the beast away into an innocent child would _not_ be in Konoha's best interest."

"Bah, but we have already solved such trivial problems! Our own Jinchuuriki is completely immune to the effects of his Bijuu, and has supposedly mastered its chakra completely, all thanks to Konoha's superior Fuinjutsu, which is available to us in this very room!"

"(Sigh) Naruto, it would appear that Danzo is not going to let this issue go, so please inform the council why it is not possible for another Jinchuuriki to utilize the same seals you have to control the Bijuu's chakra."

"If I must. A Bijuu's chakra is corrosive to any human body, the only reason Jinchuuriki survive the sealing process is because seal masters make it necessary for the Bijuu to keep their hosts alive in order to survive themselves. Of course you can't really kill a Bijuu, they're made of chakra, but you can force the chakra to disperse, causing the beast to disappear for a period of about fifty to a hundred years, which is longer than most shinobi live, so Bijuu usually choose to keep their hosts alive. Now, my seal suppresses the chakra completely, and converts it into my own rather than allowing it to enter my system at all. However, this only allows me to accesses a small amount of power at any given time, at least compared to any other Jinchuuriki. To access large amounts of power at a time, the chakra must first be compressed before entering the chakra system. Compressed chakra rips chakra coils to shreds, which is normally irreparable. The only reason I survive it is because of my regenerative bloodline limit. In other words, the only person capable of utilizing this seal is another Uzumaki decedent, one of my own currently non-existent children."

"So, are you satisfied now Danzo?"

"No. But, if the only thing holding us back from choosing an immediate vessel for the Sanbi is lineage, than I think the obvious course of action is to issue an order to the last of the Namikaze clan to breed immediately, even choose the mate for him if necessary."

"You want me to order a twelve year old boy to have sex with someone he doesn't know like some kind of livestock! Danzo, you go too far!"

"We only need the boy's seed, sperm donation is becoming more popular these days. I bet you could find a woman in Konoha willing to carry the Yondaime's grandson."

"As usual you fail to see the point entirely. Luckily for me, however, this time the laws will shut you up for me. Konoha law prevents the council from interfering in the private matters of the clans, and I myself will never issue such an order. Let it go Danzo, we will find another way."

"Actually Hokage-sama, if I may, I think a solution is possible with some aspects of Danzo's-sama's… suggestion."

"Hiashi, good, let us hear something more reasonable for a change."

"Ah-hem. Yes, well, while the council itself cannot interfere with clan matters, the clans themselves are perfectly capable of interacting with each other, and using their private matters in a way that benefits the village. If Naruto is willing, I propose a marriage contract between our clans. My own daughter, Hinata, has been friendly with him since the two of them were five. The child would not be born as… immediately as Danzo would like, but as Naruto said, we have a number of years before anything needs to be done."

"Interesting. Naruto?"

Naruto was not exactly prepared for this. He knew Hiashi meant well, but he didn't exactly like the idea of him planning out the rest of his and Hinata's lives like that. That, and the fact that he was twelve meant that he really hadn't thought about this sort of thing yet. Hinata was a good friend, but beyond that Naruto couldn't even comprehend. But simply saying no would not only upset Hiashi, but the council would not like the idea of Naruto putting himself before Konoha, and he really needed most of these people to like him, for some of his plans to work…

"Before I decide the entire future of one of my best friends," With one swift movement of his eyes, he cast a look at Hiashi that he was sure he would hear about later "allow me to make a suggestion that is somewhat unusual, but I think will satisfy most of the people in this room."

"Oh? Speaking from experience, if you could manage to satisfy almost everyone in this room simultaneously, it would be very impressive. Go on."

Naruto smiled. Sarutobi was being very blunt with the council, and many of them were getting annoyed. It was amusing to watch.

"As many of you already know, it is usually impossible to seal a Bijuu into someone who has exceeded infancy. The chakra coils must be able to stretch in order to accommodate the extra chakra. However, in the case of someone with my bloodline-"

"Are you suggesting that we allow you to keep both of Konoha's Bijuu inside of you? You're more foolish than I thought, boy. The council-"

"AS I was saying, Danzo" There were more than a few frowns about the room. Naruto, a mere twelve year old, had just interrupted a council elder, and addressed him without an honorific appropriate for someone of his status. However, Sarutobi, as well as most of the shinobi council, smiled in mirth. "If we had another shinobi in our ranks with my bloodline, it would be possible to do the sealing sooner than we could if we waited for my children to be born. And it just so happens that exactly two shinobi are registered in Konoha's ranks who are direct decedents of the Uzumaki clan, though they do not, at this time, possess the bloodline."

"At this time?" Asked Koharu

"It seems this suggestion will be as unusual as you promised, Naruto-kun. Please continue, and start with who exactly are these two shinobi you mentioned? Though I have a feeling I should have already guessed about them."

"Ah, yes. Well, one of them is not currently in the village, but that is immaterial. I am talking about Senju Tsunade and Uchiha Sasuke." Murmurs broke out across the room. The implication was obvious, the idea of the last Uchiha holding the power of the Bijuu excited and or scared many in the room. Specifically, the old members of the civilian council can remember since they were children how the Uchiha military police protected them from domestic danger. They all had high respect for the clan, and even higher hopes for its last survivor.

"Impossible" Oddly enough, Danzo's usually Uchiha friendly agenda was not enough to convince him that such good news could be true. "There is no way that such a powerful bloodline could exist within Konoha for so long without our knowledge."

"It hasn't. When two bloodline users breed, the result is a wielder of both bloodlines for one generation, followed by one or both of them disappearing from the line entirely. Did none of you ever wonder why Hashirama and Tobirama Senju were the last wielders of the Senju clan Gekkei Genkai, despite the fact that Hashirama's line continues to this day? It's because those two bloodlines were too incompatible, causing them both to disappear forever. This risk is exactly why clans have historically chosen not to allow intermarriage between each other."

"You talk nonsense! You don't even have all of your facts strait. Tobirama Senju did not possess the Senju clan's bloodline limit."

"Actually" Began Koharu "That is not entirely true."

"Most people don't know this" Homura continued "but all seas of chakra are only capable of possessing one elemental affinity. Those with bloodlines granting them two affinities at once are actually born with two seas of chakra, one with each of their affinities."

"And Tobirama-sensei was a rare case, he had two seas of chakra, BOTH with a water affinity." Sarutobi finished the lesson. "Now, Naruto, Danzo is no doubt going to demand proof of your claims next, even if I do reveal the fact that Tobirama-sensei once admitted to us that the Shodai was only his half-brother, so go on, I know you have it."

(Flash)

Naruto disappeared, leaving many startled and confused. Danzo smirked, preparing to gloat that the child had run away from the argument because he did not, in fact, have proof, when

(Flash)

Naruto returned, carrying four scrolls. He unrolled two of them and held them up, showing them to Danzo in particular.

"The Uchiha and the Senju were proud clans, both wanted to hide the fact that their best warriors were actually half Uzumaki. But the Uzumaki clan kept meticulous records, most of which were sealed into a sealing scroll and brought here by my Grandmother. These are birth certificates, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, both recorded as members of the Uzumaki clan at birth." He then held up the other two. "Marriage records, of two brothers, Takayuki **(2)** and Naoya **(3)** Uzumaki, married to Ena Senju **(4)** and Emi Uchiha **(5)** respectively. These are the parents of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha."

More murmuring erupted, stronger than ever. This was news to everyone, with only three exceptions. Sarutobi, Koharu, and Homura had enough information from their sensei to guess as much already, this merely confirmed their suspicions.

"Well Danzo, there you have it. Naruto has provided proof that indeed, Tsunade Senju and Sasuke Uchiha are descendants of the Uzumaki clan. Now, if you're done interrupting, I would like to hear how Naruto plans on awakening a dormant Gekkei Genkai."

"But he already has!" Cried Tsume, a look of realization and awe erupting from her face.

"What do you mean Tsume? Surely if a thing was possible, I would have been told about it." Sarutobi looked right at Naruto as he said this.

"I asked him to keep it a clan matter, but that was foolish of me. I am ashamed to say that my clan has historically banished all children born into the clan without the ability to communicate with our dogs. I have abolished this practice, but it is still difficult for anyone living in the Inuzuka compound that does not possess our bloodline. Naruto was kind enough to solve this problem."

"My father detested many of the traditions and practices held by the clans of Konoha, and this one of the Inuzuka clan struck him personally. His own student, Rin, was born an Inuzuka without the bloodline. She was cast aside by her own parents at the age of four and even stripped of her family name. My father worked tirelessly to put a stop to this, and even after Tsume-sensei did abolish the practice of abandoning clan members as children, their lives were still difficult. He decided to see if there was a better solution, one that would increase Konoha's strength at the same time. I have completed this project, and have tested it successfully on two members of the Inuzuka clan. I have determined that the older the person is, the riskier it is to use this seal. A twelve year old like Sasuke will have some risk, his genes will suddenly and drastically be altered, his sea of chakra will double, and although I don't believe this will happen, his immune system may be reconstructed, as Uzumakis have the unusual trait of passing resistances and immunities down to their children. Though this bloodline has skipped several generations, so his line's immune system will likely start from scratch, with him. The risk will not be too high, and his new bloodline will all but ensure his safety."

"You're saying we could double the power of the Uchiha clan forever?" Danzo asked with excitement.

"No, I'm saying we can double _Konoha's _power forever. With this seal, it may be possible, with some clan marriages, to create shinobi with several bloodline limits, perhaps even all of them at once, given enough time. But that would be risky, the more you alter the genes of a person, the more likely serious damage will occur. That is also many generations down the line, for now I'm suggesting we use this to turn Sasuke into the container of the Sanbi. Despite his age, it would be a simple matter to seal the beast within him, with minimal risk, if he had the Uzumaki regenerative abilities."

"And it could be done immediately?"

"No, he would need to undergo many tests first, to make sure his regeneration works as well as mine, I would need to increase the speed of his healing by giving him the lotus seal, and his chakra reserves would need to be increased dramatically. I would also suggest waiting for his regeneration to mature nearer its peak, as close to the age range of twenty three to twenty eight as possible, though I believe the sealing could be done as early as age sixteen. I would need to train him myself in order to get his chakra reserves high enough, only the Uzumaki training methods will work fast enough, but overall we could have a fully battle ready Jinchuuriki in four to five years."

"NO!" the old man on the civilian side of the room, Hiroshi Ito **(6)**, had been shaking in rage and fear ever since Naruto first said Sasuke's name, and Sarutobi had been waiting for this outburst. "I will not allow the last of that noble clan to become a monster!"

Sarutobi took a deep breath, preparing himself for the assault on his patience. He didn't want to outright ignore the old man, Hiroshi Ito had been on the council longer than anyone. His father was a member of the original civilian council, started by his idealistic sensei, the Nidaime. It was his idea to give the civilians a voice, the Shodai had always been more concerned with winning the first great shinobi war than anything else.

"Hiroshi, please listen to me. That kind of fearful thinking is-"

"I am not afraid! I will not allow the last Uchiha to become like that… THING!" He points a finger at Naruto.

"Fine then, you can be stubborn if you like but know that the decision is not yours alone. We shall have a vote, all in favor of Sasuke Uchiha becoming the container of the Sanbi, raise your hand."

The choice was obvious, not only would making Sasuke the container of the Sanbi increase Konoha's power more quickly than any other option, it also began the process of something new and exciting for Konoha, the merging of the bloodlines. Every member of the Shinobi council raised their hands, as did all the elders including Danzo, only two hands on the civilian side of the room stayed down.

"It is decided then, by an overwhelming majority Sasuke Uchiha will be the container of the Sanbi. Now, that leads to one final order of business. Naruto, you said you needed to train Sasuke yourself?"

"Yes, the Uzumaki training secrets will be essential to him once he undergoes the genetic changes."

Sarutobi smirked. The boy was good at this game, he was getting everything he wanted out of this. The old man knew that Naruto could simply have given the necessary scrolls to Kakashi, but by making himself a Jonin sensei he would be allowed to send Akio in as his proxy whenever he was 'too busy' to come himself, meaning he could choose what council meetings he attended and which ones he ignored. He could also work on his seals during D-ranked missions, leaving a shadow clone to watch the kids. And… there was one more thing. Sarutobi had watched Naruto training his friends to be stronger over the years, and realized that his true intention was to build a small army to fight Madara with. Adding Sasuke to that army would prove a wise decision indeed. Sarutobi wouldn't stop him, after all he was also building loyalty with his comrades, which is exactly what a future Hokage should be doing.

"So be it then. Tomorrow, Naruto Namikaze will replace Kakashi Hatake as the Jonin sensei for team seven, consisting of Haruno Sakura, Inuzuka Kiba, and Uchiha Sasuke. Meeting adjourned."

Xxx

To be continued

Xxx

**(1) **The original Sakura is the most useless character in the history of characters. I hate her, so I've decided to simply delete her completely, and replace her entire character with someone more awesome. Somehow I don't think anyone will mind, but I thought I should clarify why Sakura is awesome all of a sudden before I get hate mail telling me how useless she actually is.

**(2)** Takayuki Sugo does the voice of the first Hokage

**(3) **Naoya Uchida does the voice of Tobi when he's serious (the anime hasn't caught up to the manga enough for the real Madara to have a voice actor apparently. I'm only caught up with the manga, so I don't even know where it is)

**(4) **Ena Shimokawa does the voice of Mito (The first Hokage's wife)

**(5) **Emi Sagara does the voice of Mikoto Uchiha (Sasuke's mother)

**(6) ** Hiroshi Ito is the voice of Danzo

Review!

(Also, it appears that the recent updates to ffnet solved my problem with the seperation. Now if I could just get the admins to stop dwindleing my favorites list...)


	8. Teaching

Namikaze- Being head of the Uzumaki clan doesn't give Naruto Daimyo status. Even if Uzushiogakure no Sato still existed, he would only have as much power as the leader of one of the minor hidden villages. As for the rest of your question… if I EVER read a story where the author invented clan laws that allowed clan heads to remove members of the council at their leisure, I would stop reading it immediately, because that's really fucking stupid.

hollow-kyuubi- Yes, I am aware, thank you. With that in mind though, I would like to remind everyone that this story was posted a few years ago. There might be a few details that are a bit… outdated.

Chapter 8: Teaching

Disclaimer: Fuck you

XxX

The next day, Konoha Ninja Academy

XxX

"I'M FIRST FOREHEAD GIRL!"

"Eh?"

A confused and annoyed Sakura Haruno looks down the hall to see an unreasonably angry Ino Yamanaka charging in her direction, a seriously unintimidating look on her usually plastic pretty face.

"I WONT LOSE-ow!"

As always, Ino was trying pointlessly to keep their old rivalry alive, and as always, Sakura shoved her to the ground with one hand, effectively ending the annoying game before it could start.

"Ino, leave me alone, I don't want to race to class with you, it's not a challenge."

"Hmph, even on the last day, you're so cold Sakura-chan."

"(Sigh) Whatever, just stop bothering me."

"Heh, I'm not that dumb Sakura, you've been planning for four years to get Sasuke, acting like you don't care, but I'm not going to let my guard-"

"PLEASE, shut up! God Ino, do I have to spell it out for you? I. Don't. Like. Sasuke! You can have him, you two deserve each other…"

"I'm not falling for- HEY!"

Sakura shoves her back to the ground, and before she can annoy her any further walks into the classroom and closes the door behind her. Sakura looks around the classroom, smiling when Hinata waves her over. She makes her way up to where her and Kiba are sitting, taking her usual place on the far left.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

"Well," starts Kiba, a strange grin on his face "I heard something pretty interesting from mom last night. Have you seen Naruto lately?"

"Not since the other day when he showed up in the hospital again, but he was asleep and I didn't get to find out what happened."

"Well, apparently Naruto got promoted a few days ago, he's a jonin now."

"Really? He didn't mention that yesterday, at my genin exam. He did seem to be in a hurry though…"

"Yeah, and while she wouldn't tell me what happened, somehow the very first mission Naruto was sent on ended up with him in the hospital. Imagine that, _Naruto_ sent to the hospital by an enemy!"

"(Snort) as if" says Sakura "I saw the bandages over one of his eyes, he put _himself_ in the hospital. _Again._"

"Still, for him to have used _that_ power… I can't wait to hear this story."

"Alright everybody, settle down." The various gossip and complaints quiet down as Iruka makes his entrance. "All of you here are now shinobi of the leaf! I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of each one of you…" Except that he did tell them, and then gave a twenty minute long speech about something nobody paid any attention to. "… But I can see I've bored you all long enough, let's get to the part you're all waiting for, the teams."

'Finally' thought Sakura as she kicks Kiba awake.

"Team one … Team seven, Haruno Sakura," Sakura perks up at her name and rechecks that Kiba is still awake. "Inuzuka Kiba," The two share a brief smirk, leaning forward in their eagerness to hear the last name in their trio. "and Uchiha Sasuke." The joy was stripped from their faces, Hinata was downright crestfallen. The three best friends would be split apart, Hinata would probably do most of her training without any of her friends from now on… "your sensei will be Namikaze Naruto."

It wasn't just Naruto's friends who were surprised. The name Naruto Namikaze is very well known throughout Konoha. There was a whole lesson about him in the academy history books. He also donates money to the hospital and owns the orphanage, making him a well-respected member of many communities. He ss legendary amongst shinobi families, being the youngest member of Konoha's research and development department in history. And of course, he is the same age as all of them. To hear that he was a Jonin sensei… well, that was certainly a subject to talk about.

"Team eight, Aburame Shino and Hyuuga Hinata, your teacher is Yuhi Kurenai and your third member will be her apprentice, Kurama Yakumo."

Well that certainly made sense. Yakumo was someone who Naruto had helped a great deal once, by sealing away a demon that had grown in her mind. She's safe now, but it was originally her own Gekkei Genkai that had created the demon in the first place, so having one of Naruto's friends as her teammate was probably a good idea. And Hinata is by far the most qualified for such a job.

"Team nine is still active from last year. Team ten is Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Choji, led by Sarutobi Asuma. Well everyone, good luck. Your Jonin-sensei will be arriving to pick you up, just wait here until they arrive."

With that, Iruka left and the chatter picked up again. Within five minutes half of the Jonin had arrived, including Kurenai-sensei.

"See you later Kiba-kun, Sakura-chan." Hinata waved and smiled, but they both knew she was upset at being separated from them both.

"Good luck Hinata-chan."

She went to greet her new teammates, getting a particularly warm welcome from Yakumo, who surprisingly enough remembered her as one of Naruto's friends. They left, and after a short ten minutes more so had everyone else except Sakura, Kiba, and Sasuke. Kiba and Sakura sat together, chatting and laughing the time away, and finally, after thirty two minutes and fifteen seconds of waiting, Sasuke stood up, turned around, and walked up the steps towards their seat in the back row.

"Where is he?"

"Excuse me?"

Kiba, as an Inuzuka clan heir, is naturally an alpha male type of person, so naturally he took offence to Sasuke's demanding tone. In that instant, the two boys decided they didn't like each other.

"Everyone knows you two are friends with Naruto Namikaze, so where is he and why am I still waiting for him?"

"Oh," replies Kiba with a satisfied smirk on his face "He arrived with Kurenai-sensei. He's been standing on the ceiling the whole time, waiting for you to notice him."

Sasuke blinked several times, annoyance and disbelief flaring through his body like a storm. He looks up, and sure enough a blond haired blue eyed boy in a black trench coat (which was somehow pointing strait up towards the ceiling despite the fact that Naruto was standing upside-down) was staring back at him, a look of boredom on his whiskered face.

"Kiba, you're too impatient. I was testing him."

"Bah, I wasn't waiting all day for this idiot to notice you. Besides, even you can't stay upside-down forever."

"True… alright then." Naruto falls to the floor, flipping effortlessly in the air to land on his feet. Naruto turns to look right at Sasuke's livid face, then smirks. "You look upset. Are you mad that I made you wait? Or is it something more? I'm a jonin, yet I'm the same age as you. You're even taller than me. Has my mere existence hurt your pride?"

"Tch" Sasuke clenches his fist and turns his head as he makes that sound, truly a master of moody teen behavior.

"It seems your ego matches my own, but you certainly haven't earned it yet, if your file is anything to go by. But no matter, we'll change that… Kiba, Sakura, I've been told not to bring Sasuke into the forest on his very first day as a genin, so we'll be using Kakashi-sensei's training ground. Sasuke, try to keep up."

With that, Naruto leaps out the window and starts ninja jumping across the rooftops, Sakura and Kiba not far behind. Sasuke realizes that he's being left behind and makes a mad dash for his new team, his anger rising with every ounce of effort it takes him just to keep up with the trio.

XxX

Training area # seven

XxX

The three friends land together in the training ground, Sasuke only a few seconds behind them, panting and seething with exhaustion and rage.

"You managed to keep up. I'm almost impressed… almost."

"So Naruto" Kiba began casually while Sasuke still lacked the breath to complain "You're a jonin now huh? Pretty cool, why didn't you tell us you'd be our teacher? And why are we stuck with _him_ anyway? We've been training with Hinata for years, and that stuck up bastard hates us!"

Sasuke scowled at the insult, but he was still panting and didn't manage to retort before Naruto spoke.

"I was just assigned teaching duty yesterday Kiba, originally Kakashi-sensei was going to be your Jonin, but some things happened and, well I'll explain all that later. As for why Hinata isn't on your team, the old man insisted that Yakumo have one of you guys on her team, and Hinata is the strongest."

This was certainly true. Not even Naruto's other training friends Tenten and Rock Lee, an orphan boy Naruto had become very close with after his many years owning the orphanage, could defeat Hinata in a fight, and the two of them were a year older.

"Besides" Naruto continued "Sasuke is the last natural Sharingan wielder in Konoha. The higher ups have high hopes for him. So putting him on the same team as two Fuingan wielders made sense, to them at least."

"F-Fuingan?" Sasuke manages at last, still out of breath, but more surprised and confused than tired by now.

"These eyes, Sasuke." Naruto activates his eyes and looks directly at Sasuke, unnerving him slightly. "Do you like them? They're inspired by your own, after all. They can't do everything the Sharingan can, but they have a few new tricks of their own to make up for that." As he says this, the Kanji in his eyes begin to spin hypnotically.

"You…" Sasuke seethed dangerously, though nobody was intimidated. "You stole my family's secrets!"

Sasuke charged at Naruto, a fist raised and death in his eyes. He dashed at Naruto with slightly impressive speed, and smashed his fist right through Naruto's face. And as his hand emerged from the back of Naruto's head, Naruto began to melt into mud. And then, very suddenly, the melting stopped and the mud clone turned into a solid, somewhat disfigured stone statue, Sasuke's arm now trapped elbow deep inside of its head.

"Not stolen," Naruto's voice said calmly from behind Sasuke, who was now trying fruitlessly to free himself. "copied. Your clan has copied the techniques of countless shinobi clans throughout history, you can't get mad when somebody does the same to you, that's just hypocritical. Now, I have some rather important things to discuss with you Sasuke, so why don't you settle down and listen before you dislocate that arm. It won't come free, I assure you."

Sasuke stopped pulling and turned his head as far as it would go, trying to look intimidating despite his current situation.

"What do you want?" Sasuke spat. It seemed that he could not take so many blows to his pride in one day, and was just about ready to explode in relatively harmless fury.

"So hateful… and here I'm trying to offer you the power to kill that traitorous brother of yours."

That stopped Sasuke's squirming, and Kiba and Sakura shared a look of worry. What the hell was Naruto planning now?

"I see that got your attention. I can give you power Sasuke. All the power you could ever want. And all you have to do is do a thorough job of honoring your dead family, by helping me kill the oldest of the last remaining Uchiha, Madara Uchiha himself."

"What are you talking about? He's dead!"

"No Sasuke, he is very much alive. And he is the one who set the Kyuubi loose twelve years ago, killing my parents and damning me to the fate of village pariah."

While Sasuke was busy with his shock, Kiba and Sakura shared a meaningful look. They were growing increasingly worried about Naruto, his goal to kill Madara was turning into a dangerous obsession.

"How is that possible? He was around during the Shodai's time. He would be…"

"In his eighties, which is not impossible. Especially when you consider this." And Naruto held up the birth certificate he had shown the council yesterday, the one proving that Madara was half Uzumaki. "Madara was an Uzumaki, a member of my clan. I don't know what you know of my clan Sasuke, but we tend to live a very long time. And indeed, if you agree to help me, you will be living for quite a while yourself."

"What does that mean?"

"Now now, I can't tell you about your gifts until you agree to use them to my advantage. What do you say Sasuke, you help me kill my Uchiha, and I'll help you kill yours."

Sasuke didn't know what to think. This was all very sudden, and he wasn't given very many details. It appeared he wouldn't get answers without agreeing, not that an agreement between ninjas meant very much…

"How do I know you can even help me? What power do you have that could kill Itachi?"

"Oh, you doubt my power? Very well." Naruto snaps his fingers and the clone melts into mud once more, allowing Sasuke to free his arm at last. "Why don't you come see for yourself? You can do whatever you like to try and hurt me, give it your full power with the intent to kill. I'll even give you help. Sakura, Kiba, let's have an all-out spar. Help Sasuke try to kill me, and don't worry, I won't use the Hiraishin."

But Sakura and Kiba were terrified anyway. Hiraishin or not, fighting Naruto is like fighting a god. The last time they had an all-out spar, the five of them, Kiba, Sakura, Hinata, Tenten, and Lee had all teamed up against Naruto, and all of them had been beaten within an inch of their lives.

"Ready?" Kiba wakes the small white puppy that had been snoozing in his jacket, while Sakura pulls on a pair of thick leather gloves, both reluctantly get into fighting stances. "Go."

"**Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!"**

Without hesitation, Sasuke breaths a massive fireball in Naruto's direction.

'A direct attack already? Is he that arrogant, or is he just eager to see what I can do? Either way…'

"**Doton: Doryuuheki (Earth style: Earth-style wall)"**

The weak fireball crashes into the earth wall harmlessly. However, the attack works better than Sasuke had anticipated. When Naruto looks up, he can see through his wall where his opponents are with his Fuingan, and Sasuke's hiding place is instantly revealed. However, there were also suddenly four Kibas and three Sakuras, and even the Fuingan can't tell the difference between a shadow clone and a real person.

'Let's see… One Kiba underground, two Kibas and two Sakuras hiding in the trees, surrounding me, and a Sakura and Kiba standing where they were originally. Akamaru's sense of direction while underground is better than my own, the obvious thing would be to put him underground. And I suppose I'm supposed to believe that those two standing in front of me are clones, while the real ones hide in the trees. However, these tactics are obvious, my opponents know me too well for that. I perfected the **Jutsu Kaishin** and **Yomi Numa **combo by fighting against Kiba, there's no way he'd put Akamaru in harm's way like that. The one underground is just a clone. Now, they know that I know where each combatant is hiding, what good would it do to hide from me? There is a Kiba right behind me, and if I assume that the Kiba right in front of me is the real one, then the one behind me is most likely Akamaru. They've surrounded me in order to attack right when I'm performing the **Jutsu Kaishin**, which takes a moment because I have to use two jutsu right after the other. Heh, sorry guys, you'll have to try better than that.'

"**Doton: Yomi Numa!"**

Naruto creates a swamp beneath him just as the Kiba underground reaches his feet. As predicted, the first attack comes right when Naruto begins doing hand-seals.

"**Gatsuuga!"**

The Kibas in front and back of Naruto charge in like two giant drills, tearing the grass out by the roots just from the sheer force of their spinning.

'Hm… only two? Then this is only part one of their attack. However, it's too late to stop.'

"**Fuuton: Juryoku Uzumaki! (Wind style: Gravity Spiral!)"**

Naruto conjures a small tornado, with himself at the center. This twister is, however, spinning backwards, sucking everything down into the ground, into his swamp. Both Kibas are twisted off course by the spiraling wind, and sucked down into the tar-like swamp of the underworld.

As the two Kibas crash into the swamp with a mighty splash that throws sticky mud everywhere, Naruto stops his jutsu and begins to flash through hand seals.

'Now, wave two should start soon…'

"**Ninpo: Jutsu Kai-**"

(BOOOOOOM!)

All three Kibas suddenly explode with the force of an earthquake each. Dust and mud go everywhere, Naruto disappears in the destruction, a nearby tree falls over, and Sasuke is completely disoriented.

"HE'S UNDERGROUND!"

Sakura hollers over the still falling dirt, the crash of the tree, and the insubstantial buzzing that permeates everyone's ears. A different Sakura leaps out into the middle of the clearing, right in the center of the chaos, and begins to fall, fist raised and eyes flaring.

"SHANNARO!"

(BAAAAAAAANG!)

To Sasuke's astonishment, when Sakura's fist collides with the earth, the whole clearing explodes, the very earth splits open and crumbles like a cheap vase.

'Too bad, you made a mistake…'

"**Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"**

Puffs of smoke rise up from the new crater like an ominous steam, and from the smoke black chains with Kunai on the ends of them reach out like a mass of tentacles from a gigantic monster.

"Shock."

"Oh SHIT!"

As the chains begin to glow with electricity, Sakura screams in terror, knowing exactly what comes next. She takes out kunai and shuriken, throwing them at the oncoming chains to deflect them, but there are so many of them, it proves a useless effort.

"Ahrg!"

Sakura tries to scream in pain, but even her vocal cords are powerless against the electricity coursing through her body as the chains begin to envelop her. It takes a moment, but the shadow clone puffs out of existence.

'Now there are two Sakuras and one Kiba. Akamaru can't henge into anyone other than Kiba, and since Sakura would've trusted her clone to know where I am, the one that was dumb enough to yell was Kiba in disguise.'

"**Doton: Kōzō-teki tankan (Earth style: Tectonic Shift)"**

The cracked earth moves, giant slabs from the shattered clearing smash into each other, killing Naruto's clones left and right. As Naruto had predicted, it was the Sakura who yelled who had done it, and only Kiba could do earth Jutsus.

'I've got you now…'

Thinks Naruto as he slips effortlessly through the shifting earth with the **Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu (Earth style: Hiding like a mole Technique)**. He heads strait for the last remaining Kiba, knowing that it has to be Akamaru, who does not possess the Fuingan and will not be able to see him coming.

'One down.'

Naruto leaps up from the earth and grabs Kiba's neck in one fluid motion.

"Shock."

"Shock."

To Naruto's great surprise, Kiba bursts into smoke, only to reveal Sakura standing before him, coursing with lightning chakra and therefore immune to Naruto's electric charge.

'You finally learned, Akamaru...'

"**CHIDORI!"**

Naruto leaps back, a hint of fear in his eye as the concentrated bolt of piercing chakra nears his heart. He had to give them credit, he certainly didn't expect this…

"**Gatsuuga!"**

"Harden."

Midair and unable to dodge, Naruto quickly switches from lightning chakra to earth chakra, making his skin turn dark brown and hard as granite. The two Kibas collide with Naruto with a loud SMACK, like throwing a pebble at a boulder.

"SHANNARO!"

Still coursing with lightning, Chidori in hand, Sakura makes one last charge forward, desperate to do actual harm to Naruto. For even with a direct hit, Kiba and Akamaru's claws bounced right off Naruto's chakra powered skin. But as Naruto lands on his feet, he stops glowing and, without effort, reaches out and grabs Sakura's wrist, right below the start of the deadly Chidori.

"I've had just about enough of that."

He whispers calmly to her, as with his hand glowing blue from the lotus seal, reacting to Sakura's lightning chakra and converting into harmless chakra for his own use before it even enters his body, he snaps her wrist like a twig.

(CRACK)

"ARG! FUCK THAT HURTS!"

"GRRRAH!"

Akamaru, still with Sakura's appearance, rushes in to help her.

"Sit boy."

Naruto says these words calmly as he turns his head to look into Akamaru's eyes. His Fuingan spins for a moment, and without warning, Akamaru's transformation breaks, he falls over, and goes to sleep.

"RASENGAN!"

Kiba comes next, his transformation already dispelled since he used his earth jutsu, and he come wielding a powerful ball of spiraling chakra. But this time the help is useful. Just as Naruto turns to look at the oncoming Kiba, Sakura bites through the pain, stops the useless lightning, and makes one last earth-shattering fist. With an earthquake aimed for his head and a black hole aimed for his chest, Naruto has only one option left. He dodges the fist by tilting his head at the last second, then pulls Sakura by her broken wrist into the path of Kiba's Rasengan.

'FUCK!'

Kiba panics but manages to stop the flow of chakra to his attack, which causes the ball of spinning doom to explode and send everyone flying. Naruto kicks off of Sakura's chest, leaving a paper seal on her which glows for a moment, causing kanji to snake out from it and wrap around Sakura like ropes, binding her movement completely. Midway towards the ground, Naruto notices six shuriken flying in his direction. He takes out both of his wrist blades and deflects them all without so much as a single thought. Upon landing, he retracts his blades back into his sleeves and turns to look at Sasuke, who is currently staring at Naruto with apparent awe.

"Is that really the best you can do, Sasuke? You're barely even in this fight. At this rate you won't even manage to beat your team mates, let alone Itachi."

(Crack)

Kiba breaks through the ground next to Naruto, Rasengan in hand. Naruto doesn't even turn his head, he simply reaches out and grabs Kiba's wrist, just as he had done to Sakura.

"Harden!"

Cries Kiba, just in time as Naruto was about to snap his wrist as well.

"Shock."

"ARG!"

Having skin and bones as hard as granite doesn't protect you from electric shocks. As Kiba falls over, twitching, Naruto finally looks at him, only to pull another slip of paper from his sleeve and slap it onto Kiba's chest. He lets go, but the seal binds him as it had done to Sakura before Kiba even has a chance to move. Naruto looks back at Sasuke, only to see a spinning shuriken flying at him right before it collides with his neck.

"Heh…"

Sasuke smirks in victory, only to notice that Naruto's facial expression hadn't even changed. Naruto calmly reaches up to his neck and pulls the Shuriken out from his jugular. The bleeding stops almost instantly, and with a momentary brilliant glow from the seals on his neck, the wound closes completely.

"Do you see now Sasuke?" Sasuke can't help but notice that his voice doesn't even sound hoarse. "This is the power I wield. If Itachi were to show up in this clearing right now, aiming to kill you and your teammates, who cannot move, he'd be dead before he even laid one finger on any of you. And you can have this power, all of it and maybe more, if you will follow me. Help me Sasuke, and you will gain the power to do anything."

He then throws the shuriken back at Sasuke, but as he catches it Sasuke notices that it's too dark to be his shuriken, with a strange pattern etched into the blade…

(Flash)

"Will you except?"

The words are whispered into his ear by Naruto, who is somehow right behind him.

"H-hai."

"Excellent."

And with one sharp pain in the back of his head, Sasuke knew no more.

XxX

To be continued

XxX

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